1080
New Zealand has been attempting to curtail the effect of introduced mammals on our native forests through 1080, for over 40 years. Despite this, possums, rats and mustelids continue to devastate our native flora and fauna. The widespread and unchallenged use of 1080 is a failed pest-management strategy and must be reconsidered.
New Zealand currently spends over $100m per year, on the indiscriminate and devastating use of Sodium Monofluoroacetate (1080) poison. 1080 is an inhumane method of pest control and kills the very species it is used to protect, including birds, farm animals and insects.
As well as the unintended environmental damage that 1080 inflicts on non-target species, there are also serious environmental, health and economic risks.
These risks range from the largely unknown health effects of 1080 entering drinking water catchments, to the potentially devastating consequences to our meat export trade.
The presence, or suspected presence of 1080 in possum carcasses, means their fur or meat cannot be used. This severely restricts the emerging $120m possum product export industry.
It is UnitedFuture policy to:
- Completely ban the use of 1080.
- Reallocate current spending on 1080 poison to research into and implementation of, alternative pest control methods, including emerging New Zealand-made, self-setting traps, commercial exploitation of possum products and non-residual ground-bait poisons.
- Support and promote the growing and ecologically-sound possum fur industry, as both a part of a broader pest-management strategy and an emerging earner of export receipts.