NO to 1080 Use in NZ reported on 16 August :

“Let’s be absolutely clear about the FACT that 1080 poison is NOT a ‘natural’ substance. This OIA dated last week from the New Zealand Government confirms that the SYNTHETIC poison 1080 is manufactured in the USA and imported into NZ. It is now processed into baits at the two factories: Wanganui and Rolleston.” – see attached.

In 2004, factory owner Charles Wigley said :

“… he makes as much as five tons of the poison annually, with most of it being exported to New Zealand. He said his only U.S. customer is the Department of Agriculture, which said it uses less than four tablespoons of Compound 1080 annually in sheep collars. The collars kill coyotes by poisoning them when they bite an animal’s throat.

The poison collars are used in nine states, but the government said they only kill a couple dozen coyotes annually. It was once used in California, but voters there in 1998 approved a ballot resolution banning the use of Compound 1080 and another poison, sodium cyanide.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/…/f4103ea0-4390-4c34-8929-…/…

In an article in ‘The Anniston Star’ by Zach Tyler, March 11, 2015, Wigley was reported as saying he thought he was the sole producer of 1080 used in pest control and that “New Zealand is, far and away, my largest customer”.

In another news article at that time, Tull Chemicals’ owner Charles Wigley said that NZ imported 90% of his product, Australia 7%, and Israel 3%. I can’t find the article, bother it, but those figures are embedded in my head ! (The factory was in the NZ news in 2015, because of the infant formula threat).

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SO HAS THE NZ GOVERNMENT TOLD THE TRUTH ?

Are we still importing pure 1080 from the USA ?

Have we simply got a massive stockpile here to use up until it is manufactured in NZ or replaced with another nasty poison ?

Is this the reason that the Rolleston factory, Pest Control Research Ltd, has finally been given consent to manufacture 1080 baits?

Will they be allowed to manufacture pure 1080 poison as well in the future?

Or will the government-owned factory “Animal Control Products’, trading as Orillion, start manufacturing pure 1080 poison again, as they did for some unknown reason from 1998 to 2002?

Photo : The old Tull Chemical factory in Oxford, Alabama

SOURCE

POSTSCRIPT

We have a postscript from a reader at Facebook:

“The West Coast Regional Council has admitted a secret $500,000 investment in a pest control company and new factory which is looking to manufacture 1080 poison at Rolleston, near Christchurch.
The council released a statement this morning after being outed by the Greymouth Star.
Once the factory is operational, the regional council will be involved in 1080 from manufacturing to consenting and even the application of the poison through another council-owned company.
Company Office records show the Rolleston partnership with Pest Control Research NZ Ltd was formed in May 2013. It has only two shareholders — Christchurch man Malcolm Thomas with 51 per cent, and the West Coast Regional Council with 49 per cent. This story came out in The Herald, October 2014.”