Thread: 1080

For a good number of years now various people/agencies have talked about using a contraceptive approach to the NZ possum problem. Yet nothing seems to have happened. Still we see millions of dollars spent on 1080 drops. The UK has taken action to eradicate grey squirrels and "The government scientists leading the research say the contraceptive, which makes both male and female grey squirrels infertile, should be ready to deploy in the wild within two years." https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-62096272
WTF is the NZ government thinking in their persistent use of poison that is indiscriminate when the money could have (and still could be) spent on a contraceptive programme.

why cause 1080 is cheap - highly likely contraceptive options will not be really actively pursued because of cost - and there are some problems - it is likely that a contraceptive would go out as an aerial pellet - that wont kill the possum and neither will that contraceptive spread amongst the possum population - it will only effect the possum that eats that pellet - any bio toxin -disease or any organisim that kills possums and can spread thru the population is quite frankly bloody scary -why well the risk of mutation and jumping species is huge and would need years of study and proof of safety -so we have cheap 1080 - overseas contraception is used so that the greenies dont see the animal die it simply cant breed - so their little greenie minds are somewhat placated - so all we can do is keep DOC and the other agencys using 1080 honest - some key points 1) DOC need to stop forcing down our throat that the 1080 used is a natural product -wrong !! what used is a man made substitute that is chemically altered from natural occuring 1080 and should not be called the same thing 2) operations are safe - wrong!! the aerial 1080 industry is littered with cockups - including buckets dropped ,bucket malfunctions, overfly of boundarys are quite common, operator and pilot error are common i.e spills - buckets started at wrong time - DOC choose to not tell you when they stuff up - but the aerial 1080 reports are available online -but be warned they dont go back very far -the single biggest risk is if a full bucket was dropped into a stream used as a water supply - cant happen yeah right DOC not allowed to overfly water supplys yeah right- they are given permission by the medical officer of health in Taranaki to overfly the water supply of 80,000 plus people thats right- all water supplys coming of Mount Taranaki are overflown with bait - and DOC get away with it

Originally Posted by Andygr

For a good number of years now various people/agencies have talked about using a contraceptive approach to the NZ possum problem. Yet nothing seems to have happened. Still we see millions of dollars spent on 1080 drops. The UK has taken action to eradicate grey squirrels and "The government scientists leading the research say the contraceptive, which makes both male and female grey squirrels infertile, should be ready to deploy in the wild within two years." https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-62096272
WTF is the NZ government thinking in their persistent use of poison that is indiscriminate when the money could have (and still could be) spent on a contraceptive programme.

Different scenarios, UK has other endemic native mammals to consider regarding poison.