FIVE scats featured in official fox evidence records were shown to belong to completely different animals in 2009, but the items remain listed as “physical evidence of fox activity in Tasmania” by the government to this day.
A draft government report from 2009, made public under Right to Information laws this month, shows Fox Eradication Program officials were advised that the scats actually belonged to birds, a wallaby and a snake.
But the government kept the anomalous items on record and they are still touted as evidence on the Department of Primary Industries, Parks, Water and Environment’s website.
It is understood the false scats were also part of the Labor government’s official evidence listing when it received its last round of federal government funding for fox eradication in 2013, worth almost $2 million.
For unknown reasons, the five scats tested positive for fox DNA, despite them not belonging to the species.
The anomalous items are part of a collection of 61 scats that remain stored with the rest of the state’s fox evidence at the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery in Launceston.
The revelation comes as Tasmania Police continues its preliminary probe into allegations of evidence tampering in the former government body.
The Fox Eradication Program received about $50 million in funding during its 13-year existence.
The 2009 report, written by former DPIPWE scientist Simon Fearn, reveals a long list of scientific anomalies.
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