Helicopters dropping 70 tonnes of carrots laced with 1080 on Hawke's Bay were met by a protester wearing a "Goodnight Kiwi" suit late last week. The two-day 1080 drop over 23,588ha from Maungataniwha in the southern Ureweras through Willow Flat to Raupunga finished on Friday. Raupunga farmer Becchii Watt executed a "humorousprotest", in which the helicopters being loaded with bait were met by her playing dead in her kiwi suit. "I looked convincingly ridiculous running around in the forest in a kiwi suit ... we didn't stop anything but we made our point," Miss Watt said. "I did look good in a kiwi suit ... and I did make the 1080 people laugh," she said. Banners were erected on Miss Watt's property, which neighbours the area of the 1080 drop. One banner read "1080, in use since 1958 - must be really effective" while another said "let's lay poison over our pristine paradise". "Some of the trucks (involved in the 1080 drop) stopped to read the signs and tooted," she said. Poison warning signs were erected along roadways and points of entry into blocks where the 1080 drop occurred. Pig hunters/dog owners should have been aware of the risk to their dogs and kept them out of the immediate area. Miss Watt's eight dogs had kennels only 500m from the boundary of forest on which 1080 was dropped. She said there was no way she could stop her dogs playing with dead possums. "I've been forced into this position because my dogs are the tools of my trade." Owen Harris, Animal Health Board vector control co-ordinator with the Hawke's Bay Regional Council, said the drop aimed to lower possums to a 2 percent residual trap catch level. There was an 11 percent average catch rate in November 2004. Poison warning signs will be erected along roads into the drop area and dog owners should be aware of the risk to their dogs and keep them out of this immediate area, Mr Harris said. Either three or 5kg of bait was dropped on each hectare, with heavier applications on the Raupunga end of the project. Deer repellent was used on the Maungataniwha end of the block. The area covered by the "Wairoa Aerial" drop was south of the much larger "Te Urewera" drop over 56,000ha. The Animal Health Board said the aerial drop was necessary to stop the spread of tuberculosis.
