Turnout pleases poison protesters

DONNA WALSH/ Waikato Times

MAKING A STAND: Poison-Free New Zealand protesters in Hamilton.

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Organisers of the Poison-Free New Zealand protest in Hamilton yesterday are adamant they gained increased support for their campaign against the use of aerial drops of anti-pest poisons despite a modest turnout.

Health Freedom Waikato spokeswoman and protest co-organiser Mischele Rhodes said more than 200 people attended the protest throughout the day, part of nationwide demonstrations aimed at preventing the use of the poisons such as 1080 and brodifacoum by the Conservation Department (DOC).

"We were very pleased – we had people coming and going all day, so we could've had up to 250 people," she said.

Ms Rhodes said protesters were a mix of urban and rural dwellers, and some had travelled from as far away as Matamata, Marokopa, Te Kuiti, Te Aroha and Raglan.

Rural residents were "the people who have to live among this stuff", and they were particularly vociferous about the issue.

Members of the public encountering the protest had been supportive, with many signing a petition to Environment Waikato.

DOC and the Animal Health Board believe banning the poisons would push native birdlife towards extinction and put New Zealand's multibillion-dollar dairy and meat industries at risk.

They argue that without weapons like biodegradable 1080 and the rat poison brodifacoum, whole populations of native birds and vast tracts of native forest would be lost to rats, stoats and possums.