Dead kiwi photo in brochure misleading, dog group says

This photo, unlike these unfortunate kiwi, just won't die. Photo / Rolf Mueller-Glodde

A photo of dead kiwi has again been causing controversy after the cause of the bird's death was misrepresented — this time in a kiwi protection brochure.

Last month a photo taken seven years earlier by a Kerikeri man showing more than 50 dead kiwi was used by an anti-1080 group claiming the birds had been killed by the pesticide when they had in fact been killed, in roughly equal measure, by cars and dogs.

The person who made the post, on the Facebook page 1080 Eyewitness, eventually took it down but not before it had been shared more than 1500 times.

Now the pro-dog lobby group Bay of Islands WatchDogs has found the same photo being used in a pamphlet for dog owners produced by the Whangarei and Kaipara district councils with the caption "Kiwi that have been killed by dogs".

WatchDogs co-ordinator Leonie Excel contacted the councils demanding the brochure's withdrawal, saying it was misleading to claim all kiwi in the photo were killed by dogs when about half died after being hit by cars.

Mark Schreurs of the Kaipara District Council responded that he was not aware that the birds pictured had not all been killed by dogs and future versions of the pamphlet would be corrected.

Withdrawing the leaflet was not necessary because only a small number were printed each time with the information reviewed each time a new batch was printed.

He said the pamphlets would soon be out of stock and be replaced with a new, corrected batch.