Protesters make a nationwide stand against 1080

Saturday, 8 September 2018

Thousands of anti-1080 protesters marched across the country on Saturday imploring the Government to stop allowing the controversial poison to be used.

Protesters carrying signs reading 'Ban 1080' and 'It kills everything' gathered at 40 sites from the top of the north to the bottom of the South Island.

Outside Parliament, hundreds stood and chanted with some wearing skull and crossbones capes, chemical hazard suits and masks while others dressed in black with white crosses to symbolise the loss of the wildlife they say was killed by the poison.

One South Island group met the Wellington party at the ferry terminal then walked to Parliament at 10 am as part of the nationwide Operation Ban 1080, a social media promoted demonstration against the pesticide. Other marches were held in Blenheim, Christchurch, Dunedin, Hamilton, Kaikoura, Napier, Queenstown and Taupo as well as in smaller centres.

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DoC, Federated Farmers and Forest and Bird all support the use of 1080 but environmental groups nationwide have been outspoken in calling for it to be banned claiming it kills native animals and birds. Supporters say predator pest numbers are so high that without serious action some native forests would be seriously damaged.

The West Coast has been one of the main hot spot for the issue, where aerial 1080 drops covered 230,000 hectares of the region in late 2016. A group met outside the Greymouth District Council to protest its use. Further north, cars honked at protesters in Stratford, in Taranaki.

Organiser Kevin Moratti said he had been fighting against the poison for years.

'If 1080 inadvertently got in our water catchment off the mountain - by inadvertently I mean a bucket being dropped or something - New Plymouth would be without water for three months. This is the toxicity of this stuff.

'It's got to stop.'

Most people were not aware of the effects of the poison, he said.

'Every province in New Zealand is having a protest because people have realised the lies and deception of the Department of Conservation.

'We're doing this for the future of our children.'

Fellow protester Feona Gilmour said it was not just targeting pests – it was also affecting domestic animals, livestock and wildlife.

The protests come a day after a small group of 1080 protesters rallied outside a Marlborough property they claimed was storing the poison. Close to 10 people gathered in Tuamarina, between Blenheim and Picton, on Tuesday in support of Alan Gurden, who was walking from Bluff to Wellington in a bid to get 1080 banned.

University of Otago Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology Dr Belinda Cridge earlier said she understood the main anti-1080 concerns were around non-target species toxicity and water contamination, meaning that species that are not being targeted by the poison drop consume the poison and die. Common concerns centred on deaths concerning other native species, such as birds and fish, and hunted species such as deer and pigs.

Cridge said 1080 was 'an important pest control tool' and because the poison was broken down quickly it was 'unlikely that it will accumulate in waterways and cause down-stream poisonings'.

The rallies coincided with grassroots climate group events in Auckland, Wellington, Nelson, Christchurch, Dunedin, and Invercargill call for strong local leadership on climate change.

350 Aotearoa Executive Director Niamh O'Flynn said the country had 'come a long way', but still had 'a lot of work to do'.