Sporting Hunters Group Says Deer Repellent is a “Hoax”
Deer repellent used with 1080 poison to supposedly deter deer from eating the toxic baits is a hoax according to Laurie
Collins of the Sporting Hunters’ Outdoor Trust.
West Coaster Laurie Collins of Hector who has had a lifelong association with wild animals and mountains, said the
repellent was used by the Department of Conservation to allay hunters’ fears of deer being killed by 1080.
“Deer repellent is a blood product so why would one herbivore i.e. deer as vegetarian be repelled while another
herbivore (a possum), is not, according to DOC’s illogic?”
Laurie Collins who began work as a Forest Service cadet in the late 1950s with the first trials of 1080, said the simple
fact was deer repellent did not work. The only reason for DOC’s use of it was to “con” gullible deerstalkers and groups
who feared deer might be wiped out. Reports indicated that in the Kahurangi National Park 1080 drop hunting groups had
naively paid half the cost of using deer repellent.
There was doubt it was legal to spread a blood product haphazardly around as DOC did with 1080 baits laced with deer
“repellent.”
Laurie Collins said sporting hunters were predominantly concerned about the nature of 1080 as an “ecosystem poison”.
First developed in the 1920s as an insecticide, 1080 was found to kill any living organism that came in contact with it.
“It was then adopted by bureaucrats as an animal poison. They use it to kill animals while turning a blind eye to the
enormous ecological damage it does to birds, bees, invertebrates and other life.”
Laurie Collins said the total experience of hunting was not just about deer but being in the environment of mountains
and forests and seeing bird life.
“We don’t want silent forests. Who wants to be in a morgue?” he said.
Laurie Collins had experienced areas where 1080 had been used and with an aftermath of a deathly silence which could
remain for years until life gradually recovered. Claims of abundant bird life after 1080 lacked keen observation.
“The only birds that survive are the nectar eaters like tui and bellbirds. Predators like the falcon and morepork and
insectivorous birds like robins, tomtits and fantails suffer mortality or with insects wiped, numbers are limited by the
heavily reduced food supply.”
Laurie Collins said it was “hypocritical and unjust” that a citizen could be fined for killing one native bird, but the
Minister of Conservation and DOC could knowingly kill thousands of birds with their 1080 programme.
He described Minister Nick Smith’s “Battle for the Birds” and 1080 drops based on a super-seeding year of beech trees
and an imagined rat population explosion as “demented and destructive”. The campaign aimed at reducing rats was
“ill-conceived and ignorant.”
“Anyone with half a brain would know beech trees have seeded for millions of years. The kiore rat has been here 800
years and the ship rat 150 years. Why suddenly is one year - 2014 - so special out of 800 years?”
Laurie Collins said the rise of the “Ban1080” political party showed the deep concern about 1080 of people acquainted
with the back country. NZ First and United Future were other political parties with equally deep concerns reflected in
policies against aerial 1080 drops.
“For an increasing number of Kiwis it’s an election issue,” he said.
ends