Hundreds "Terrified" and rightfully so! Tull USA is poisoning them!
Click Here to Add CommentSubject: Hundreds "Terrified" and rightfully so! Tull USA is poisoning them!
Date: Mon, 29 Apr 2002 07:31:12 -0400
From: Stephen Tvedten <steve@getipm.com>
Organization: Get Set Inc. (www.getipm.com)
To: Paul Helliker <phelliker@cdpr.ca.gov>
Director, State of
California, Department of Pesticide Regulation
cc: Christine Whitman whitman.christine@epa.gov
Hundreds protest DOC's 1080 drop
The Conservation Department is planning to drop the possum
poison 1080 around the base of
The 1080 poison is to be air-dropped on conservation land and farmland in the area within the next few weeks.
"We're terrified," says protest organiser Joss
"We've got people living in the national park.
"My partner and I have a homestay at the back of Erua..(and) they're going to drop it round (there)," he says.
It's a cause which has united pakeha and local Maori, including local kaumatua Yorkie Paranihi, who addressed the crowd at the protest.
"This (the land being poisoned) has something to do with the whenua.
"It's only fitting that I say a prayer."
But prayer gave way to anger when the protestors reached DOC headquarters on the mountain, with some dumping mock-poisoned vegetables outside the building.
The poison 1080 has been in
The Animal Health Board spread 1200 kilograms of the poison over more than a quarter of a million hectares last year, and it has the contract for the Ruapehu poisoning programme as well.
But opposition to the drop is growing, as even DOC Ruapehu spokesman Mark Davies admits.
"Certainly 1080 is a very contentious issue and there's a lot of concern both in the local community and in the national community," he says.
However DOC says it will not be reviewing its plans.
"No, it is a very important need to control possums, and there are huge conservation benefits that flow from this," Davies says.
Conservation Department land surrounds and borders the tiny settlement of Erua - residents say the 1080 poison not only threatens wildlife and domestic livestock it also runs the risk of poisoning their water supplies.
"I've hunted pig with a knife and a couple of dogs in my time, and had cattle charge me, but this frightens me more than any bloody thing," says one protestor, local farmer Alf Sivyer.
The Ruapehu district protestors have now also written to Conservation Department Minister, Sandra Lee, calling on her to put a stop to the poison drop.
But the Agriculture Minister Jim Sutton says that 1080 is currently the best poison there is to combat possums, and he claims it breaks down quickly and does not build-up in the environment.
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