*Pic: Signs warning of the eco-system toxin 1080, are frequently seen in the New Zealand countryside as government misguidedly drops tonnes of the poison from the air while local councils scatter it by hand.
First published May 3
A pest worker who worked for a New Zealand local council Environment Waikato for two years, has damned 1080 poison as cruel and destructive of bird life.
Graeme Merekara Shelford, now resident in Australia, said he had a mixture of sadness and anger over the inhumane nature of the poison and that contrary to the claims of government departments and councils using the toxin, it was killing the vast numbers of bird life.
“Numerous times I was told 1080 doesn’t kill anything but possums. I was just ignorant of the damage because of what I was told, but I learned firsthand that is just not true,” he said.
The poison is used by government agencies and local councils to kill predators supposedly annihilating native birds but was killing birds themselves and insects, food for insectivorous birds such as robins and fantails.
Graeme Shelford was involved in trapping, using 1080 and also aerial drops of the poison, which often involved visiting farmers’ properties to talk to landowners before using1080. His boss was frequently involved in arguments with farmers.
“The farmers looked at us as if we were taking their farms. They didn’t want the toxic stuff. Many of them knew how nasty 1080 is.”
Graeme Shelford as a keen hunter had heard, prior to working with Environment Waikato, of numerous pig dogs killed by the poison.
“Yes I had suspicions, but then Environment Waikato told me 1080 was okay,” he said.
However one day he went to park on his usual place on a green, grassy hill. He noticed the grass and soil had been gouged with what looked like plough marks. His mission was to put fresh poison in pots. Graeme got through the gate and then noticed the most experienced member of the team had left a toxic pot too close to the fence.“The cows had got to it and in their agony they ran up and down that hill in a crazy fit, tearing up half the hill,” he said. “It was horrific. Ugly!”
Six cows were dead, blood oozing out of noses and ears, with rabid-looking froth mixed in and eyes bulging out.
Graeme Shelford was also told by his managers that bird life benefited from 1080. He remembers graphically going to a farm which has a block of native bush. On his first visit and others subsequent to poisoning, the bird life was thriving.
“The birds were deafening you with their songs of life,” he recalled.
The Environment Waikato team pre-baited it with non-toxic baits to get possums accustomed to the lure. Two weeks later poison baits were laid out. The poisoning team returned to renew the 1080. Graeme was saddened by the morgue-like silence.
“I went back to load fresh poison and it wasn’t hard to notice the eery silence – no birds at all. That was enough for me,” he said.
Graeme Shelford feels a strong sense of shame that he was part of the destruction by 1080.
“I know we could have trapped that block, and a lot of the other blocks, instead of using poison. I’m not proud of being part of the 1080 spreading. It makes me sick just thinking about the amount of wildlife I helped to kill”, he ruefully said.
“Keep up the good work. Keep New Zealand green, and not that toxic green either ! Peace !” he encouraged the anti-1080 advocates.
*Frank Schumaker, not his real name, is known to the Editor
