Hand-made sign on the neck at South Arm
The justification for the baiting of tiny South Arm peninsula is not there Mr Elliott, head of the fox eradication program.
After telling Tasmanians that baiting in the South was completed last April 2012, the poisoners have back-tracked on to South Arm peninsula (TT: South Arm cops another dose of 1080)).
You told us your baiting teams were moving north into the Derwent Valley and into the Central Highlands.
Why?
The [b]only justification[/b] for such a major [b]change in direction[/b] and the need for 1080 baiting on South Arm would be if your Invasive Species Branch had received a credible report of a fox in this area and that this was followed up by compelling, irrefutable corroboration.
But Mr Elliott has told the interested South Arm residents in emails that he didn’t expect to convince them of the need to bait and that the closest public sighting to their area was ‘unconfirmed’ and to the north of the South Arm peninsula.
In all the questions asked by the South Arm community to understand why their locale is being targeted for 1080 baiting, the Manager was not able to provide any certainty that any foxes were there; no confident information of new confirmatory evidence of fox presence on South Arm was offered to this Community.
It does not add up, Mr Elliott.
