7 November 2011

Deerstalkers Disgusted With Devious DOC Heli-hunting Report

The New Zealand Deerstalkers’ Association is disgusted by DOC’s open endorsement of law-breaking heli-hunters in its final report for this season.

DOC has produced a whitewash to appease itself and its new law-breaking friends, to ease the way for yet another short-term concession for 2012.

The report shows:
That a mere $199,000 was raised through activity fees for heli-hunting concessions. This sum has sunk without a trace, though DOC promised it would actually be used to contribute to its own tahr control operations in 2011;

That only 33% of chamois and tahr trophies were taken from national parks and wilderness areas and that operators actually cited whether in their extended season as a major reason for not using wilderness areas more;

That the department has failed miserably to achieve a cull of five young or nannies per trophy for all trophies shot in national parks or wilderness areas;

That only through significant supervision by DOC staff, in DOC time, could it achieve the 1 to 4 ratio it boasts about in its report;

That some heli-hunters broke conditions of their permits by fulfilling their cull requirement of nannies and juveniles, for trophies taken outside national parks or wilderness areas, even though their permit expressly forbids it;

That far from completing their promised quotas, concessionaires have still 150 juveniles and nannies to slaughter, for trophies their clients took, now the heli-hunting season has closed;

That two operators failed to produce hunter logs, though their permits clearly state they must;

That another operator, the subject of a serious complaint, failed to have DOC’s preferred settings on his GPS, making tracking of his movements virtually impossible;

That four ground-hunting parties withdrew from hard-won ballot blocks in the Landsborough and Adams wilderness areas because they were aware they would likely be competing with heli-hunters;

That five written complaints and an undisclosed number of phone complaints, were received by DOC during this season, none of them in NZDA’s view being investigated or settled properly;

That DOC admits it had no compliance systems in place to deal with heli-hunters shooting tahr outside designated hunting blocks, or in places tahr had not been known previously;

That DOC fails to account for a total of 43 trophies shot outside of designated blocks and that its own changes to mapping made during the season cannot explain them away.

NZDA is appalled that DOC excuses blatant law-breaking and non-compliance with concession conditions and passes it off as ‘confusion’ amongst concessionaires. We believe heli-hunters are developing a deviant smoke-screen of technical non-compliance, which only seems to come to light well after they have breached their permits.

NZDA is also amused to see the net gain beyond the revenue gathered from activity fees, amounts to a paltry $27,000 in fee-culling by concessionaires. We wonder if heli-hunting, with all the public distaste and revulsion it brings with it, is really worth the trouble?

We will be doing all we can to make a public spectacle of these law-breakers and the officials who back them. We will also endeavour to show the non-hunting public what a repugnant activity heli-hunting is and why it deserves to be outlawed.

We will publicly oppose more short-term permits for 2012, and will work hard to oppose long-term permits as well, especially over national parks and wilderness areas.

ENDS

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