KAKA Press Release:
Karameans Advocating Kahurangi Action (KAKA) is pleased the Animal Health Board (AHB) has postponed the scheduled
1080-drop for Karamea and applauds the West Coast Regional Council for requiring the AHB to reconfirm landowner consent.
However, we still believe that the AHB is determined to proceed with the drop and will do so by redrawing the boundaries
of the drop away from privately owned land to eliminate the need for landowner consent.
In addition, the comments made in relation to the consultation process by AHB vector-control manager Chris Pullen are at
best misleading. KAKA has yet to find a single local resident who has a clear understanding that a new consent was being
pursued, despite the AHB having several opportunities to publicly state that the application to the WCRC for a new
consent with a larger area (from 30,000 hectares to 52, 000 hectares and increase of about 60%) and different bait type
(from cereal to carrot baits) had been initiated.
To highlight this fact, KAKA has also yet to find a single landowner approached directly by employees of pest-control
contractor EPRO to seek their agreement to a new consent application--as is required under the process--who was given a
clear indication of the new consent application and what it entailed. This is precisely why many landowners have decided
to withdraw their signatures on the grounds that they did not fully understand what was being asked of them.
The existence of a new consent application was in fact inadvertently discovered by KAKA members in the process of
researching the activities of the AHB, the WCRC and EPRO on behalf of the people of Karamea and the West Coast.
ENDS