Media statement
For immediate release
Monday 26 February 2007

Bounties – a responsible alternative to 1080

United Future MP Gordon Copeland has called for a Government-led assessment of whether a bounty system is a responsible alternative to the seemingly indiscriminate aerial application of 1080 throughout New Zealand.

“In the light of recent media reports and newly acquired anecdotal evidence it is my opinion that 1080 is a cruel and inhumane substance that should not be dropped over pristine New Zealand bush,” said Mr Copeland.

The Department of Conservation, regional councils and the Animal Health Board spend a combined total of $80 million per year on the aerial and ground application of 1080. The Department of Conservation is primarily concerned with killing possums as a means of protecting New Zealand’s indigenous biodiversity while the Animal Health Board exists to rid New Zealand of bovine TB, of which possums are supposedly the major vector.

“If you incentivise the trapping and extermination of possums through a tail bounty the results would be more effective in reducing possum numbers than the use of 1080, while being significantly cheaper. A bounty of $5 a tail would only cost the Government $50 million a year for the extermination of 10 million possums.

“Without question the Animal Health Board has done a great job in reducing bovine TB over the last 15 years or so, but now infection is at such a low-level that we can afford to take a more cautious, 1080-free, approach to its control.

“Combine the bounty with the price a trapper may get for the pelt and meat of the animal and there is a fairly good incentive for a good keen man to get into the hills and knock over a few possums. In areas such as Northland, East Cape and the West Coast, this could lead to the growth of a niche possum fur industry as well as providing a valuable employment option.

“And the best thing is nobody is dropping poison all over our forests, lakes and rivers,” concluded Mr Copeland

ENDS

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