1080 Baby Food Scare Seems on “Inside”

The 1080 baby food scare came to a head October 13 with the arrest of a 60 year old businessman charged with “blackmail.” He was alleged “to have sought financial gain.”

“The accused has been involved with a range of companies including one that involves pest control,” said a newspaper report.

Reaction from the public opposing government 1080 drops was of no surprise. Many of the thousands interviewed by police said it was very probably someone within the industry.

Laurie Collins convenor of the Sporting Hunters Outdoor Trust, (SHOT) said police were to be complimented on their persistence and success. But he felt government had deliberately used the case as a vehicle to smear the thousands of New Zealanders opposed to government’s policy of dowsing public lands with an ecosystem poison.

“As far as I’m aware much effort went into targeting and blaming the public opposed to poisons,” he said. “At least the outcome exonerates the public.”

He said many law abiding citizens interviewed by police pointed out that since the 1080 used in the threat was raw powder only a person within the industry could have accessed the 1080 used.

Chairman of the Ban 1080 Party Bill Wallace from Golden Bay, welcomed the news of the arrest. But 1080 was still being spread with the ecosystem suffering as a consequence.

“The reality is there’s a couple of eco-terrorist groups, both publicly funded, spreading 1080 over an area the size of Taranaki each year.”

He said during drops, tracks were not always closed, consents were for 10 years and the 1080 scene was a potential recipe for disaster as well as giving New Zealand a “growing bad, dirty image.”

“1080 is cruel, it’s not working and birds are suffering,” he added.

Co-chairman of the Council of Outdoor Recreation Associations of NZ (CORANZ) Bill Benfield of the Wairarapa, said because pure 1080 was used, it almost certainly was an “inside job.”

“As it turned out, it was an inside job, i.e. someone within the poison pest control business.”

Bill Benfield who has written two conservation-based books exposing the 1080 fraud, was interviewed by National Radio at the time the blackmail threat was made to Fonterra. His view of an “inside job” was broadcast in the 7 a.mnews bulletin. The same day it was quickly removed and absent in subsequent bulletins.

“That makes you wonder at government covering its backside by controlling national radio,” he added.

Tony Orman author of hunting and fishing books and conservationist, said when interviewed by police, he told the officer the offender could have come from the areas of angry hunters, a grieving pet owner who had lost a dog to 1080, the pro-1080 lobby trying to “frame” the anti-1080 public, economic sabotage by another country or someone involved in the “poisoning pest business”.

“I told the officer because it was in raw powder form, it was very likely someone close to government’s poisoning programme,” he said.

So it proved.

He said there was another angle to the “health scare” surrounding the baby infant food blackmail threat.

‘We’ve had from time to time, vociferous pro-1080 activists saying 1080 is harmless, akin to a cup of tea or salt and vinegar chips. Surely the credibility of such fanatics is in tatters?”

Wanaka’s Carol Sawyer who has publicly opposed a DOC 1080 drop near Lake Wanaka said “financial gain seemed the motive.”

“Reports are that a pest control businessman did it , or according to news, as he had an alternative poison to promote,” she said.

West Coast dairy farmer Mary Molloy of Farmers Against 1080, said she was pleased an arrest had be made.

But it did not allay her deep concerns and opposition to 1080.

“1080 is a dangerous poison. FATE wouldn’t support any action to put 1080 into the food chain.”

In essence that was what DOC and TbFreeNZ was doing.

Laurie Collins of SHOT said in the light of the recent arrest of the alleged offender, it was time political parties stated their policies on 1080.

“Only NZ First has had the guts to stand up on behalf of the increasing numbers of Kiwis opposed to the destruction 1080 causes the ecosystem. You can’t run expenditure of vast sums of public money on an imagined, supposed pest threat,” he said.

the reality was that 1080 was disrupting the ecosystem food chain and stimulating massive upsurges in rat numbers and blindly causing problems.

“If anyone doesn’t understand this, read Bill Benfield’s two well researched and documented excellent books,” he said. “All politicians and DOC should read them.”

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