Gordon Copeland Press Release
For Immediate Release
Wednesday, 30th July 2008

DOC review of 1080 poison way overdue

Independent MP Gordon Copeland today renewed his call for an immediate ban on the continued aerial application of 1080 poison.

He was responding to reports that seven kea died in the Fox Glacier area after eating 1080 poison which had been dropped from the air by DOC.

“The Kea is an endangered and protected parrot and it simply beggars belief that after decades of dropping 1080 pellets from the air, DOC has at long last acknowledged what thousands of New Zealanders already know; namely that 1080 poison kills native birds,” said Mr Copeland.

“It needs to be borne in mind that the killing of kea and other native birds in New Zealand is illegal, so this matter should also now be placed in the hands of the Police.”

“It is particularly galling that these deaths had resulted from the deliberate actions of DOC who have a statutory duty to protect New Zealand’s native birds. The kea, one of the world’s most unusual parrots, is also judged by many to be the world’s most intelligent animal.”

“Let us be under no illusions that this is an isolated event. Scientists and other have expressed concern for years that it is morally and ethically unacceptable that the Department charged with responsibility to protect our birds, continues to kill them in great numbers using the argument that ‘the end justifies the means’. It does not and I now call on the Minister of Conservation to bring these unacceptable practices to an end once and for all.”

Mr Copeland reiterated that it is Kiwi Party policy to ban the aerial application of 1080 poison immediately as a first step to bringing the use of this deadly poison in New Zealand to an end for all of time.

“We simply must find a safer and more sensible way of controlling possum, stoats and weasel numbers in the New Zealand bush. This issue refuses to go away.”

ENDS

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