A former Taupo Mayor brought this to light & is featured in another article exposing the gravy train that 1080 aerial drops are. From that article:
[Mayor] Cooper’s council has passed a resolution – six for and four against – to advocate for the abolition of aerial 1080 poisoning and to seek alternative possum eradication methods. The Westland District Council has passed a similar resolution and the mayor of Kaikoura has called for a 1080 ban, as a groundswell of opposition to the deadly poison, banned in most countries, builds.
A 1080 “gravy train” keeps the aerial drops going, Cooper claims. There is too much money being made for them to be abolished, he says, conspiratorially. He talks of closed-door deals, conflicts of interest and a lack of transparency from the agencies involved. “I think it’s a bit like something died in the back paddock and hasn’t been buried.”
Cooper points to multimillion-dollar contracts awarded to a local firm, Epro Ltd, to spread 1080 from the air. Its director and co-owner, Roger Lorigan, used to work at Environment Waikato, which issues resource consents for 1080 work, in its pest management unit. A former colleague, Kevin Christie, also has his own firm, Ecofx based in Otorohanga, which has also won big contracts. READ MORE
Four horses die in Turangi, poisoned with 1080 in a bungled drop by Epro
stuff.co.nz
A fourth horse has died and three others remain extremely sick after what Turangi residents claim is a bungled 1080 poison aerial drop and they want someone to take responsibility.
Horse owner Noel Fox said that on November 6, 1080 poison bait was dropped over paddocks near Rangipo Prison on which he grazes 11 horses. He had been told earlier that the area was out of the drop zone.
Mr Fox said that on the day of the drop he was at the paddock to get two horses for his children to ride at pony club the next day.
An Epro worker stopped to ask if he had heard there had been an error with the 1080 drop and that poison had been dropped close to the paddock boundary.
“It was the first I heard of it,” Mr Fox said.
Epro was contracted by Environment Waikato to do the 1080 poison drop.
Mr Fox said one of the horses started showing signs of being unwell at pony club and died on Saturday, November 10. The other horse also showed signs of having eaten the 1080 poison, but was not as badly affected.
Two other horses remain ill and it is not clear if the three animals will fully recover.
Two of the sick horses were due to go into training for Polocrosse and the Pony Club Mounted Games but will now be turned out for the season.
Mr Fox said only after his horse showed symptoms of poisoning did he look on Wednesday, November 7 in the paddock and find 1080 poison pellets. “It was very upsetting for the kids.”
Three other horses in the area died, on November 8, after the same 1080 drop.
On Friday, angry horse owners met to discuss concerns about what they say is buck-passing by Epro and EW.
In a statement the group said it was “absolutely appalled” at information contained in a media release sent out by EW.
Group members said they were not well informed about the 1080 drop by Epro.
“We, the owners, would like to know the names of the persons whom Epro say they had contacted prior to the poison drop. Certainly none of the horse or land owners-administrators have been contacted.
“To blame the horse owners for their own horses dying is an absolute insult. We are lost for words for being accused of killing our own horses.”
Epro managing director Roger Lorigan said there had been a “breakdown in communication” internally among his workers.
“More communication should have been there.”
Mr Lorigan said there was a lot more to the story than had been reported and he looked forward to the EW review so Epro could “move forward”.
EW biosecurity group manager John Simmons said EW had “strict procedures in place for 1080 use and we have an extremely good record of using it safely”.
“We were in contact with some of the horse owners when the incident was first reported to us but this is the first we have heard of these additional allegations.
“We take these reports very seriously and will be inviting the horse owners to tell us about this new information so it can be included as part of the review that’s under way.
“Until we have established all the facts it would unhelpful to comment further.”
SOURCE
http://www.stuff.co.nz/waikato-times/news/131777/Fourth-horse-dies-after-poison-drop?fbclid=IwAR0yaKU96bL9CS3SWRW72kTyfdU34UMoT2iCa5-OSWQqNAwL5yqC8LqSooo
Photo: Clyde Graf, video screenshot (note: not a horse from the article)
For further articles on 1080 use categories at left of the news page.
If you are new to the 1080 poisoning program, a must watch is Poisoning Paradise, the doco made by the GrafBoys (banned from screening on NZ TV, yet a 4x international award winner). Their website is tv-wild.com. Their doco is a very comprehensive overview with the independent science to illustrate the question marks that remain over the use of this poison. There are links also on our 1080 resources page to most of the groups, pages, sites etc that will provide you with further information to make your own informed decision on this matter.
If you are pro poisoning of the environment, EnvirowatchRangitikei is not the place to espouse your opinions. Mainstream would be the place to air those. This is a venue for sharing the independent science you won’t of course find there.
Finally we don’t endorse violence in any way shape or form.
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