Sun, 15 Nov 2009 5:09p.m.
By Bob McNeil TV3
Today is poisons day and campaigners have been marching in a number of centres, targeting the use of 1080 poison.
Campaigners want the poison banned, but the Animal Health Board and the Department of Conservation say that in certain circumstances it's the best way of controlling predators and disease-carrying possums.
Anti-1080 protestors marched in Auckland and 16 other centres around the country today.
They believe 1080 poison can be harmful to human beings and when it comes to killing animals, it doesn't discriminate between pests and other species.
Thomas Greve, of Poison Free NZ, says 1080 is poisonous to everything it touches.
“Most of us are greenies - health loving people - we love our animals and we're out there demanding this stop,” he says.
“It poisons everything, the soil, the insects, and of course non-targeted species, that's our concern - we're not sabotagers.”
William McCook of the AHB says the poison is not dangerous to people.
“Current methodology and technical knowledge ensures that 1080 doesn't pose any risk to human health, and it has in fact good net benefits to environmental factors - your bird life, your ecology,” he says.
The AHB says 1080 is important because it helps protect our premier markets for export products.
The poison-free campaigners say they want to work with Doc to help them get more funding for research because they believe there are better ways of controlling pests than dropping poisons on inaccessible land.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
The AHB says 1080 is important because it helps protect our premier markets for export products.
ReplyDeleteI suppose this is based on the old addage that possums carry TB. Yet no TB has been found in any possum related products.
But NZ possum exporters can't guarantee there is no 1080 poison in their products.
So I suggest the AHB has got it wrong. The big problem for our premier markets for export products is the fact we use 1080 poison on our land, at the sametime saying we are clean and green.