(This article was written for the August edition of Healthy Options magazine. Healthy Options has, however, been shut down. There are rumours about there being limits to our freedom of speech by the pharmacutical industry - but this is just rumour. I have not spoken to anyone involved.)
Is there really anyone in this country who would want to see the bush avidly consumed by possums, or our native bird’s eggs greedily tucked into by the rats and stoats that have taken up residency in our wilderness? I doubt it.
So why is there such a ‘to do’ about aerial drops of 1080 pellets, that are intended to fix the problem?
Sodium monofluoroacetate, or 1080, was developed as an insecticide and rodenticide. The poison is a slow killer. When ingested the animal suffers a prolonged and horrific death. Herbivores take the longest to die – up to 44hrs, while carnivores can take up to 21hrs. Many experience convulsions, lying on the ground kicking, and making running motions with their hind legs before dying, some even screaming. This is happening right now in our bush lands in various parts of the country.
Compound 1080 was developed in 1944. Scientists described it as so generally and highly toxic that it was too dangerous for general distribution. It is legal in the United States only in a special sheep collar used in some states. Coyotes attacking domestic sheep puncture the collar and contact the poison, which kills them. In 1998 Oregon’s Governor even prohibited the use of such 1080-filled collars.
New Zealand uses 85% of all the 1080 that is manufactured in the world. Much of this is dropped by helicopter into native bush areas where trapping is said to be challenging. It is also dropped near farms when the Animal Health Board considers it prudent to kill possums because of the risk of bovine TB, which would then affect the local dairy farm. However, this puts dogs and livestock at risk of poisoning.
Secondary poisoning is a serious problem with 1080, as an animal, bird or insect can eat a carcass that has died from 1080, and the poison is then transferred, so unintentional deaths occur. Hunters are also concerned that they might shoot a pig or a deer, that has ingested 1080, and take it home to put in the freezer, consequently becoming part of the secondary poisoning chain themselves.
1080 began being used in traps in New Zealand in the 1950s. It is said there were about 70 million Brushtail possums when aerial drops began, and there are still about the same number, bearing in mind that assessing numbers is difficult. Is then the culling working, and should we continue? Is it appropriate to drop an aerial poison that states on the pack that all carcasses poisoned by 1080 should be buried immediately? How could DOC or the Animal Health Board possibly do that?
So we have dead carcasses as well as uneaten bait on our soil and in the streams in our water catchment areas. This is clean green New Zealand, right? This is clean green NZ that also uses the endocrine disrupter Round-up, and fumigates with methyl bromide. It is time that we spoke out against the use of all toxins in New Zealand and not just 1080.
Somehow in all this we seem to think that humans are the only ones with the answer, yet nature gives us clues all the time. I watched in dismay the other day when a cabbage white butterfly was fluttering around the seedlings in my garden and I had a fleeting thought that I should rush to the shops and get an insecticide – well only fleeting! Now I have a very busy thrush in the garden, hopping amongst the plants, no doubt finding caterpillars, and I have seen a couple of empty snail shells. Nature is dealing with the problem. I have also advised my garden that one plant of each type is available for insects to eat, but to please leave the other plants alone! This is called working with nature, and is something we are just beginning to return to – as our ancestors had much more understanding than we do of how Papatuanuku (Gaia) can take care of all living things, including us!
Noetic author Lynne McTaggert, said, “Science is a story told in instalments”. Lynne featured in Dan Brown’s new book,” The Lost Symbol”. In the book, Katherine Solomon became fascinated about how human intention could change the world. The movie Avatar has opened our imaginations to other ways of relating to nature. New thought in books and movies heralds the way for change.
Scientists generally seem to be able to provide ‘peer reviewed’ facts supporting either side that they want to promote and that seems true for the 1080 debate. That aside, scientists Murphy and Bradfield reported that stoat populations have been seen to increase after aerial 1080. It was found that, after the initial rat knock-down, stoats switched from a diet that was 50% rat to one that was 46% birds. On some of the islands where aerial 1080 has been used, causing the possum numbers to decrease markedly, the rat population increased; and so a highly lethal anticoagulant, called brodifacoum, has to be dropped to kill them.
How would Mother Nature respond to all this? The ‘biological imperative’ theory states that when a species is threatened, providing there is food, they actually produce more young. So the big question is - are we, by our intervention, actually causing the imbalance in nature that then leads to the increase in pest numbers and the subsequent threat to our biodiversity?
Do we really know what the ultimate outcomes of using toxins are? How sure are we of the long term effects? Shouldn’t the precautionary principle prevail: when in doubt, don’t? There is enough doubt and discomfort about 1080 to suggest that another way, a kinder, gentler way needs to be found to support nature in finding her balance.
Instead of settling for second best, ‘people power’ could promote a toxic free movement. Imagine then what innovations and discoveries would be created, in this wonderful land of entrepreneurship, new ideas, and new zeal.
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