cradlemountain

The Death of the Australian Species
Australian Native animal 1080, and road kill. 29/10/2009

I am concerned about the lack of interest in road kill and 1080 Poison in Tasmania. It is essential to have safe areas protecting our native animals from continuing to be sacrificed to road, farm and forestry practises. It is now 2009 and the unique, Australian landscape is looking pretty glum.

I have been picking up road kills now for 12 years and I am tied of doing so. I am a ‘Native Animal Carer’, and check the animals on our roads for injury and babies that may have survived. I move the dead animals off the road and throw them over the fence, even if the animal is days old and stinking of death. I do this to limit the quall, devil, and predator bird deaths. I have rescued an adult Wedge-tail Eagle, after it had been eating a dead road kill. It ended up with a broken wing. Again I found a dead Tasmanian Devil that was attracted to the carcasses of a heap of dead wallaby dumped on the side of the road at Erriba. At a closer look I discovered that the devil was shot and thrown on the heap. The bodies were dumped there, when I complained publicly about 1080 poison laid to kill our native marsupials. I found hundreds of animal bodies, all over my neighbours and my property. I have picked up and reported 7 Ring- tail Possums, 8 Platypus, a number of rare birds, Wombats, 2 different species of Qualls, Bandicoots, Potoroos, and Native hens. There were mangled messes just rotting away on our roads, during the time of the ritual of 1080 poisoning of the native animals, in the spring, some years ago when forest industries were allowed to but up farm land to prepare to plant out cloned ‘Niton’ Eucalyptus trees for the pulp industry.

That was about ten years ago now. Nothing seems to change, except the landscape. Forest plantations of Eucalyptus nitons (not Tasmanian blue gums) and soon more pine trees are creeping into the Wilmot 2klm town zone. The zone, that is there, to protect the town of the ways of the forestry and farm practises like shooting, spraying of chemicals and poisoning? This is also what some of the country families are feeling, powerless! Now it is spring again! All around Erriba and Wilmot, 1080 signs are going up again. My children live within the town 2k zone area. I witnessed, the year I arrived here, with my children and grandchildren, an adult Bennet wallaby, running into the water and drowning in front of our eyes. It was after eating the bait, 1080 poison, on a neighbour’s property.
I just learnt that Forestry Tasmania is exempt from, taxes, rates, private information, giving the public information that is asked of them, e.g. how many animals were killed? What species were affected? Why didn’t they plan for a buffer zone between the houses, towns, schools and native forest safe areas etc. as poisoned animals have affected hundreds of dogs, on there own property, and no one has counted their bodies in the water down stream.
Thousands of carcasses are left to rot. The poor animals travel up to 5ks before they die and if they don’t eat enough they go blind and sometimes live to take the bate again. This is how I found out about 1080. I wonder if this poison has affected any person, and the doctors are unable to discover what happened to the patient, as it is similar to Diabetes. We could not find it in our two dogs as the poison comes out in the water lost before they went into a coma and then died.
Forest industries are exempt from fencing between farms houses and crown land. This has to change. Corridors need to be put into place and licensed farmers can cull by shooting if native animals become over populated, This product can be used instead of wasting good valuable food and fur. This can be done successfully on Flinders Island and can easily be the way to go for the future. It only needs good corridors; buffer zone to protect our habitat and our species may come back to a balance that we have never been able to achieve in the last 200years.
I had to get permission from the local council to have a ‘Native Sanctuary’ and an artist studio. I had 54 letters of objection to this wonderful passive and caring creative career project, because I objected to 1080 poison. It lay around me for weeks on end. The poisoning cost me in one year $6,000 including the loss of my two dogs that did not leave the home area. I have collected about 1,000 carcasses near where I live and have documented some of these as Endangered species where involved. The town farmers were afraid that I would stop the Government allowing them to use 1080 poison.
The laws have changed so many times so that ordinary people cannot oppose the big companies continual use. It is an attack on our very own dreams of what Australia might become. It is just a temporary strategy, as when these trees get cut down, the animals will be eliminated all over again. They are already breading up in the older forests put in three years ago as fences and corridors where not considered. This scam that the government put together is no recommendation for a vote or to be trusted especially if we can’t be included in the decision making of our own environment. It is eliminating the local fauna and flora. Shame!

Why did we not have the opportunity to object to having a ‘logging industry’ so near to the towns, in fact in the towns themselves? 1080 poison, fertilisers and herbasides are going into our rivers and streams.
We have no say. When forestry moved into the area, this cosy sleepy town, they have bull-dozed eight farm houses and taken out all the rest of the native vegetation even on steep slops. We do not want to have native animals poison by these co. laying around rotting or drowning. The cry of crows that have been attracted to the dead carcasses left on the ground, attracting hundreds maybe thousands to this continual ritual of 1080 year after year.
The way that 1080 happens is as follows. Nation Parks and Wildlife officers have to follow strict guidelines that are impossible to be of benefit to our environment or our native animals. They are the ones that allow Primary Industries to use the poison, when the Farmer or Forest Industries get the O.K. from the ‘Parks and Wildlife’ people. This is so uncomfortable for me to understand as ‘National Parks and Wildlife’ should not have anything to do with a moneymaking industry that kills native animals and there habitats.
How far do the poisoned animals run before they die? A small % are found. West of me two years ago 1080 was laid in two large drops. And only 1 carcass at each sight was picked up. To me that only meant that the poor animals scrambled away at a fast rate to die. I can here then thumping in the night. Senator Nick Sherry advised me, the road kill was not a Federal Government department problem. I asked him if Qualls, Ring-tail possums and endangered species, especially those that had ingested the 1080 poison could very well be a large part of the road kill. Surely this would be a Federal Government problem, the decline of our native species?

It is spring and our native animals are reproducing. This is a busy time for the native animal carers. We do everything illegally, and at a risk. No safety road gear, no emergency help line for weekends and after hours, no recognition to use illegal drugs for our injured animals, no exemption of GST, no help with fences or appropriate housing of the different animals species. It is no wonder so many animals die before they are properly looked after. No help line in the phone book or on call vets for appropriate collection and help. So who is responsible for these precious animals and our health and safety? We remove animals that may have taken 1080 poison unknowingly. Parks and Wildlife, who give permission for the poison and Primary Industries who lay the poison are doing very little to address this situation.

Approximately 14 to 40 animals get killed on the road in a week from Erriba to Devonport Those we see, those that hop away and die or have a life threatening injury. How many is that in one year? And why are so many dying? Who is counting? The body count increases when 1080 poison is laid.

I have had huge phone bills trying to sort this situation out. A bureaucratic mess!
I decided to physically do something about this horrible repetitive occurrence. It seems that National Parks and Wildlife is very under funded. When I am presented with an animal to care for there is nothing in place for emergency animal help. Try to find a vet or N.P.&W. officer after hours or on weekends and the phone line from the Primary Industries, Water and Environment have a message that I don’t want to hear. Please ring back between, 9 to 5, from Mondays to Fridays.
I am hoping that the Forest Industries, Farmers, Telsta, Hydro and other users of the land, such as the Government of the day, will come forward and offer assistance sponsoring the native animal rescue on a daily basis. After all they are the Government body that has already done irreparable damage to the native species and their environment. I am horrified to know that it is ‘National Parks & Wildlife’ services give permission to lay 1080 poison. They are run by Primary Industry influences. They are not what most people think. They are wearing too many hats. They are tourist oriented and also very under staffed. This comes from at least 20 discussions from people working within the P. &W. services, all bewildered at the lack of assistance and care for our wildlife and environment. They, the workers the rangers, have been gagged and have encouraged me to speak out as if they do they will loss their jobs.

I arrived at Senator Nick Sherry’s office on Wednesday, to inform him that the Government Office did not want to receive these dead animals. They told me to take them away and did not tell me where to take them. The local council said, dump them, and I refused. I demanded that I get a receipt for these animals and identify and count them. To my amazement, Nick Mooney the N.P. officer in charge of raptors told me, there has never been a count of the poisoning, never ever! Chris Fabian of the Primary Industry said to me that I should take them to the tip. I told him that he was the one on the pay roll and that he really should thank me for the caring aspect of the animal carers plight. I left them there for him to deal with in his office. It is just as horrible, intrusive and callous for us, the animal carers to be cleaning up the work of the government, and paying G.S.T. for being a volunteer. Who cares?

Please write to the Australian Government and tell them what you think of this practise.
SARAH KING glass.artasmania@gmail.com