NZDA Supports Government Move
New Zealand Deerstalkers’ Association (NZDA) supports Conservation Minister Chris Carter’s announcement that the
Government is moving to crack down on eco-terrorism and the illegal releases of animals, says National President Trevor
Dyke.
The plans to introduce tough new penalties for releasing pests on to a nature reserve that will see the current $500
fine or one month jail sentence being increased to a maximum of $100,000 fine or one year in prison shows that there is
no deterrent factor in the present penalties, Dyke continued to say.
Unfortunately the act of making a threat to carry out illegal releases of pest in to sanctuaries is all that has to be
done to have an effect because it has to be treated as having been carried out before it can be confirmed that it
hasn’t, at some considerable costs to taxpayers.
Dyke then added that groups such as the Biodiversity Action Group (BAG), do not seem to think their actions through to
the end because if they were to carry out their threats, the remedial solution could be to use something that they are
protesting about, (i.e. the highly dangerous toxin, 1080)
With regard to the purported “illegal” release of pigs into the Kepler Mountains in the Fiordland, NZDA’s inquiries into
this have revealed that pigs have been in the area for some 30 years.
The illegal release of pests or game animals is not and has never been supported by the NZDA and it members.