Originally Posted by
Marty Henry
This might be inflamatory but Im mildly in favour of it (1080) due to experience. We lived on the ARC boundary when they 1080d the Hunua ranges in the 1990s, I opposed it along with heaps of others but it got done anyhow.
The following spring there was a huge lift in birdlife from hardly any to bloody hundreds.
The local pig hunting club who had been at the forefront of the protests found that when the area was reopened pig numbers had increased as had goats. (There never were deer in there ). The only downside was vigilance and muzzles for the working dogs.
Another friend out Kawhia shares the same view.
I think many people oppose its use because either they havnt seen the results first hand, believe the anti hype if its govt it must be bad, or object to being "locked out" of an area for a time.
A neighbor sadly lost a dog to it during the Hunua operation and that was distressing its a horrible death for a dog but other species evidently behave differently. He admitted it was his mistake, and had to conceed it worked as his lemons were no longer skinned but his and our fruit trees were savaged by tui, woodies, and parakeets.