National is now barking at Tahrs

Written By: - Date published: 1:38 pm, September 26th, 2018 - 157 comments
Categories: Conservation, disaster, Environment, national, same old national, spin, the praiseworthy and the pitiful, twitter, you couldn't make this shit up - Tags:

Is this evidence that National has gone full wingnut conspiracy crazy? Or a cynical exercise in harvesting email addresses? Or both?

Whatever the reason National has started a petition against a DOC planned Tahr cull. Here is the tweet:

What was the dastardly Government planning?

From National’s website:

The Government must halt its cull of 17,500 Tahr, due to start this weekend.

The Government is pushing ahead with the cull before even consulting with recreational hunters and the hunting industry.

Not only that, Conservation Minister Eugenie Sage has also instructed DOC to cull bull tahr against specific advice from hunting representatives and expert tourism operators.

But rather than an evil plan by this Government to take away the rights of ordinary kiwis to hunt Tahr what the Government is doing is sticking to a plan that was formulated in 1993. By National.

https://twitter.com/Publicwrongs/status/1044755505954967552

And DOC had a Tahr control for parts of the South Island that the last National Government signed off in 2015.

Eugenie Sage set out the reasons for the cull in this press release. From the release:

A cull of introduced Himalayan tahr browsing conservation land in Kā Tiritiri o Te Moana/ the Southern Alps is needed to protect special alpine plants and their habitats, Conservation Minister, Eugenie Sage said.

“I have asked the Department of Conservation (DOC) to step up efforts to control Himalayan tahr on public conservation land in the central Southern Alps.

“Tahr numbers have reached damaging levels with an estimated population of 35,000 animals on public conservation land. That is more than three times the number of animals permitted by the long established Himalayan Tahr Control Plan,” Eugenie Sage said.

“Heavy browsing and trampling by mobs of tahr damages, and can potentially wipe out the native plants they feed on, including tall tussocks and iconic species like the Aoraki/Mt Cook buttercup. On thin mountain soils it also increases soil erosion risks.

“New Zealand cannot afford to lose threatened native plants unique to our alpine areas. We need to work together to bring the population back down to a sustainable level.

“I am in discussion with some leaders of the hunting sector and will be re-engaging with them soon to discuss various concerns and gain a common understanding of the data. I also want to address some of the misinformation that’s been circulated. To be very clear there is no plan to eradicate tahr.

“DOC will aim to remove 10,000 tahr over the next eight months to help prevent the current population increasing further. I intend to discuss with the hunting, commercial wild animal recovery operators and other members of the Tahr Liaison Group what a suitable target would be for these groups.” Eugenie Sage said.

“Even after this control work is done, there will still be ample tahr to sustain guided tahr hunting and tourist ventures,” Eugenie Sage said.

“The control work needs to happen urgently. There’s a real risk the total population will explode further with another summer breeding season unless control work is done now.”

I enjoyed the Twitter responses:

This is Republican gun rights right wing crazy rhetoric from National’s social media team.  They should be ashamed.

157 comments on “National is now barking at Tahrs ”

  • Comments are now closed

  1. Muttonbird 1
    26 September 2018 at 2:05 pm

    Further evidence that the National Party of New Zealand has absolutely zero idea about the New Zealand environment.

    They have allowed the pollution by dairy farmers of NZ waterways in the pursuit of profit. And they have allowed Kauri to perish by cutting research funding for its protection. My kids now cannot walk the tracks that my parents walked with me!

    Now they wish to turn NZ high country into a prolonged, barren, helicopter-hunting Schwarzenegger/Rambo paradise explicitly for the preserve of local and international gun-toting hunters.

    And this for the ‘preservation’ of a foreign species of goat.

    Green Party take note before jumping into bed with this Blue poison.

  2. chris73 2
    26 September 2018 at 2:10 pm

    Need to be careful about this, theres a helluva lot of hunters out there that won’t be liking this.

    Not saying its wrong but, on this, Labour should tread carefully

    • Ad 2.1
      26 September 2018 at 2:12 pm

      You really think Labour or the Greens will gain some of the hunter vote by stopping the cull?

      Checked the party vote breakdown in Fiordland/western southland, or Waitaki recently?

      • chris73 2.1.1
        26 September 2018 at 2:16 pm

        Quite the opposite, I think this has the potential to bite Labour in the bum.

        • Ad 2.1.1.1
          26 September 2018 at 2:49 pm

          So if the cull was stopped, what political advantage would there be to the government?

          • chris73 2.1.1.1.1
            26 September 2018 at 2:57 pm

            Well as I replied to muttonbird below:

            ‘A 2017 report published by the New Zealand Mountain Safety Council shows that while most registered hunters in New Zealand are men (153,341), women now make up 8 per cent (13,334).”

            So a bit less than what NZFirst got and bit more than what the Greens got at the last election’

            Those numbers are approximately worth 6% of the vote, numbers worth thinking about I’d have thought

            • In Vino 2.1.1.1.1.1
              26 September 2018 at 3:25 pm

              Oh, give it up, chris73. Hunters are usually dumb-arse twits who believe that a valid contest between man and Nature is them going out into the wild with a gun that they did not invent (some despicable brainy nerd did that) and cold-bloodedly murdering some dumb animal which does not have a gun to fight back with. They all have blue brains, and are going to vote National regardless of anything at all. Get real!

      • Gosman 2.1.2
        26 September 2018 at 2:18 pm

        National is attacking NZ First not Labour and The Greens on this issue.

      • Shane 2.1.3
        27 September 2018 at 3:44 pm

        No but they could sure lose a few.

    • Muttonbird 2.2
      26 September 2018 at 2:16 pm

      How many hunters are there chris? That like to shoot animals from hired helicopters?

    • Kevin 2.3
      26 September 2018 at 4:24 pm

      Well, they clearly haven’t been doing their fucking job, have they Chris?

      35,000 Animals when there should only be 10,000.

    • Gabby 2.4
      26 September 2018 at 7:46 pm

      They can hunt possums chrissy.

    • Cinny 2.5
      26 September 2018 at 8:11 pm

      Wonders where all those hunters have been while the introduced Tahr population has been bulging out of control? FFS.

      The fierce right wing exhusband had a grand ole time with the girls last weekend. Slagging off the government re the Tahr.

      He then went on to announce to his girls that he will be taking a chopper ride down south and a week off work to hunt them before they are all gone.

      After which he took them to the hunting store where he spent $1k on fancy new hunting gear for the trip.

      Did he buy them even an icecream over the weekend, nope…. told them he couldn’t afford it. He’s always put his own priorities first.

      Personally I’m mighty proud of how Eugenie Sage has been answering questions about this in Parliament over the last few days.

      Concerned hunters should watch question time then have a opinion, gather the real facts, rather than some nat propaganda to be used for nada but scoring political brownie points.

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6XNVKcfnzY

  3. Ad 3
    26 September 2018 at 2:10 pm

    If you want to get a taste of multi-gun-rack-pickuptruck-camouflaged-goodoleboy weirdness, visit Te Anau in season. There, instead of eradicating big deer, there’s a whole organisation dedicated to keeping their numbers permanent in the form of the Fiordland Wapiti Foundation.

    http://www.fwf.net.nz/management-rationale/

    Personally I would get them all eradicated.

    • Muttonbird 3.1
      26 September 2018 at 2:18 pm

      Personally I would get them all eradicated.

      Hunters, you mean?

      Me too – starting with Cameron Slater.

    • Exkiwiforces 3.2
      26 September 2018 at 3:38 pm

      I think you would find there is a bit of money (mainly overseas hunters) involved with the Wapit deer. It’s one area I would love to hunt in as it’s quite challenging area to hunt in terms of terrain and weather as you really need to know what you doing as it will bite you.

      • Rae 3.2.1
        27 September 2018 at 1:23 pm

        Don’t think there are many full wapiti left, they have interbred with reds.

        • Exkiwiforces 3.2.1.1
          27 September 2018 at 4:35 pm

          Doesn’t really surprise me IRT the Wapiti deer, as it was a concern that this could happen when I was a member of the NZDA in CHCH some 25- 30yrs ago when I was just starting out.

    • Rae 3.3
      26 September 2018 at 4:35 pm

      While there actually is no place for tahr and chamois in the mountains as nothing had ever grazed there before them, there is an argument can be made for small populations of deer in the bush, as there were browsers there until all the moa were wiped out. I believe there is a place for limited number of deer.
      I would probably still want a small population of tahr, mainly because they are in danger of extinction where they come from. Perhaps we could be a bit of a bank for them. Hunters, though want them in much greater numbers than is truly sustainable.

      • Jeremy 3.3.1
        26 September 2018 at 5:06 pm

        Tahr are in no danger of extinction. In fact, they are not even considered a threatened species.

        I suspect this is a calculated move by National to shore up voter support in Clutha/Southland.

        • Paul Campbell 3.3.1.1
          26 September 2018 at 5:21 pm

          Aren’t they technically noxious animals, and if you have then on your land you are required to eradicate them?

          Maybe we should crowdfund a fund to help eradicate them in the National Parks too? $200 a tail anyone?

      • Cinny 3.3.2
        26 September 2018 at 8:17 pm

        10k of Tahr is the recommended population, currently the population is over 30k in NZ. So there’s plenty of Tahr to go around even after the cull.

        The 10k limit law was made decades ago. When the nat’s were in government they sat on their hands for 2 years while doing a review into it and what happened after that? Sweet FA.

      • Tricledrown 3.3.3
        26 September 2018 at 10:37 pm

        Takahe grazed Rae

        • Rae 3.3.3.1
          27 September 2018 at 6:36 am

          Takahe do not browse as high as moa did, in fact I doubt they browse at all, The loss of moa in the bush has left a niche, one that well controlled numbers of deer can fill. It is just a notion that not many have thought of, seeing as moa were gone before we got here, but when I heard it, I thought it made sense. Still do.

      • Molly 3.3.4
        27 September 2018 at 7:04 am

        ” as there were browsers there until all the moa were wiped out.”
        What browsing animals were there?

      • Stuart Munro 3.3.5
        27 September 2018 at 4:45 pm

        The hunter’s role then would have to be less la Cavatina and more Haast eagle.

    • weston 3.4
      26 September 2018 at 7:25 pm

      Well if you kill it you should eat it i reckon ad …….still wanna go ahead ?

      • gsays 3.4.1
        26 September 2018 at 8:31 pm

        Do you know how they taste Weston?
        I am curious if the goat tag carries on through to their flavour.

        • weston 3.4.1.1
          26 September 2018 at 9:12 pm

          who knows really gsays personally i dunno why ads worried about people who like wapiti quite a noble beast that tries to mind its own business waaaaay down in the wilderness of westland scarcely a bother except to busybodies .what you reckon ?

        • Kate 3.4.1.2
          26 September 2018 at 11:57 pm

          Tahr tastes more like mutton than goat. I’m pretty sure they are classified as sheep.

        • Exkiwiforces 3.4.1.3
          27 September 2018 at 4:31 pm

          Young Tahr are very good for eating, old bulls and nannies are like eating an old boot.

      • Rae 3.4.2
        27 September 2018 at 1:22 pm

        I’ve eaten tahr and chamois (the chamois, a young one, was one of the most delicious things I’ve eaten, it was a roasted leg, the tahr, not so much, probably because it was a bull).
        I have lived in the sorts of areas where all the objection is coming from, seen and met some of the obese Americans being choppered in to shoot them (hunting is not a description I would use for it) so I know both sides of this story.
        Nothing ever grazed the mountain tops before chamois and more particularly, tahr were introduced, takahe as someone else posited, grazed tussock land, so while I do like the odd bite of wild game, I accept, fully, that tahr and chamois don’t really have a place here.
        Deer as I have said, fill the browser niche left by moa, but their numbers need to be kept small otherwise we end up again in the situation as it was, especially in South Westland in the 60s where the forest was being devastated by their numbers and they were becoming runty and sick from their being too many of them. When the ground cullers weren’t able to cope and Sir Tim Wallis came up with the notion of shooting them from choppers, their numbers got cut back severely and from there came the live recovery and the advent of deer farming here.
        There were still quite a few helicopter operations and meat works were taking wild shot deer for export to Germany until someone contaminated a carcass with 1080. That would have been around the turn of this century, can’t recall exactly when, but it’s generally acknowledged that it was someone employed in the deployment of 1080, doing a bit of hunting on the side, accidentally contaminated it.
        The main objection to 1080 comes from the hunting fraternity who do not wish to see numbers so far reduced that it becomes difficult to find them and from the horror of seeing deer that were in the throes of dying from having consumed it. As much as I admit that we don’t really have anything else to counter possums, stoats, rats etc other than 1080, it is truly, truly hideous seeing the agony an animal has to go through before dying of it.

  4. Gosman 4
    26 September 2018 at 2:17 pm

    It is quite clear that National is using this as a wedge issue to drive between NZ First and one of their key support base in the outdoor hunters community. This is just smart politics.

    • Muttonbird 4.1
      26 September 2018 at 2:20 pm

      Divisional politics?

      It just hasn’t worked for National, and the proof of that is them sitting on the opposition benches slowly fading away.

      • Gosman 4.1.1
        26 September 2018 at 2:37 pm

        Ummm… they have only been in opposition for under a year. I don’t think you can claim it is or isn’t working yet. Labour spent a number of years initially trying to attack John Key’s credibility and that made no dent. That is the definition of wasted effort. If National doesn’t shrink NZ First support base as a result of these attacks THEN you can claim it is a failure.

        • Muttonbird 4.1.1.1
          26 September 2018 at 2:56 pm

          I’m pretty sure alienating NZF is one of the major reasons for the Nats being in opposition right now. Can’t see why you’d double down on that unless you had idiots at the helm.

          • Gosman 4.1.1.1.1
            26 September 2018 at 3:05 pm

            I’m not a member or a supporter of National. I don’t know why you think this is my approach.

          • chris73 4.1.1.1.2
            26 September 2018 at 3:05 pm

            How many of NZFirsts voters thought that by voting for Winston he’d keep National honest

            Half? 40% 30% maybe, reinforce the notion that a vote for Winston is a vote for Labour and most of those voters will likely look elsewhere or abstain, either way it will make it harder for Winston to hit 5% which makes it more likely for National

            • Muttonbird 4.1.1.1.2.1
              26 September 2018 at 3:19 pm

              NZF is centrist. The vote is split and they have already shed the cantankerous, RWNJ, old fuddy-duddy vote after GE2107.

              The very stupid Nats are not going to pick up any more disgruntled NZF voters by protecting a Himalayan goat.

              That is plainly stupid and even the extreme idiots at Kiwiblog get this.

              Not you though…

              • chris73 …
                26 September 2018 at 3:27 pm

                The problem is neither us know who is right until the next election happens but its good to see you getting an education by spending more time at kiwiblog

                Its good to broaden ones horizons

                • Muttonbird …
                  26 September 2018 at 3:35 pm

                  Reading Kiwiblob only diminishes one’s horizons. But I do it for the good of social consciousness in myself and other good people.

                  On the vote – it was pretty clear. The NZF vote was split and the right of that voter base went to National artificially boosting their numbers but that was massively outweighed by the female vote deserting National and going to Labour under Ardern.

                  Women can vote too now in case you hadn’t noticed 🙂

            • You_Fool 4.1.1.1.2.2
              26 September 2018 at 3:26 pm

              I think most of NZF’s vote were by people who wanted Winston to keep either National or Labour honest. They are people who reject Nationals neo-lib big buisness must wring every last cent and fcuk anyone else idealology, but also fear the science and reasoned positions of the Greens, and to a lesser extent Labour.

              So this whole try and take votes of NZF by National will only really work if they can show they won’t be ultra-right wing and all tea-party ish

              I am not holding my breath

              • chris73 …
                26 September 2018 at 3:29 pm

                John Keys government for center-right, the closet government we’ve hard to ultra-right was the Labour government under Lange

              • Gosman …
                27 September 2018 at 8:51 am

                Like most political parties NZ First is a coalition of different interest groups, some of which will be at odds over key areas of policies. NZ First has carefully cultivated the outdoor recreation sector such as fishermen, hunters and the like. These people are far more likely to be right leaning on such things as individual liberty. They certainly don’t support more restrictions on their activities.

            • Gabby 4.1.1.1.2.3
              26 September 2018 at 7:51 pm

              Not much hope of keeping the gnatz honest chrissy.

          • Chuck 4.1.1.1.3
            26 September 2018 at 5:44 pm

            “I’m pretty sure alienating NZF is one of the major reasons for the Nats being in opposition right now.”

            Winston played Labour and National off against each other. Jacinda was prepared to give more than Bill, along with the acting PM role it was never in doubt.

            Although you are correct in saying “alienating NZF voters”…Winston has done that to at least a couple of % of his supporter base.

            “It just hasn’t worked for National, and the proof of that is them sitting on the opposition benches slowly fading away.”

            The last poll had National about or above the result they achieved on election night Muttonbird. Lets revised things in say 6 to 12 months time…if National slide down to the high 30’s than the mid 30’s than what you have said will be correct. At the moment you are blinded by your partisan support

            • Muttonbird 4.1.1.1.3.1
              26 September 2018 at 6:59 pm

              That’s a very narrow set of outcomes you have proposed. If National can’t form a government on 47% then a drop to low 40s would be terminal never mind 30s.

              In short, they have burned all their friends and if current strategy is anything to go by they are doubling down on the attacks.

              No way NZF is ever going to go into government with National ever again. They killed the Maori Party and Seymour is toast in 2020.

              • Ngungukai …
                26 September 2018 at 7:36 pm

                I-Predict 2020 Election Labour 39%, NZF 12%, Greens 6%, National 37%, Others 6% IMHO.

              • Chuck …
                26 September 2018 at 8:38 pm

                None of us can foretell what will happen in 2020. Jacinda Ardern is THE current Government. She must retain that or otherwise, it will be a slaughter.

                NZF will do whatever is necessary to ensure it retains the luxury of Government. If that means supporting National, they will just be like old mates again.

        • Robert Guyton 4.1.1.2
          26 September 2018 at 6:47 pm

          No dent??
          We got rid of him, didn’t we?
          Good job.

    • mickysavage 4.2
      26 September 2018 at 2:24 pm

      Do you think they actually believe what they are saying? Or do you think they are not actually responsible for the policy which the cull is being conducted? If the answer to either is no then they are being hypocritical.

    • miravox 4.3
      26 September 2018 at 4:13 pm

      I think you’re overthinking National’s tactics. It’s a straight out publicity stunt and they might just be relieved if it doesn’t get picked up by the media.

    • Graeme 4.4
      27 September 2018 at 7:02 am

      Na.

      soimun is being played like a piano by Collins and Slater and will do, or has to do, anything to avoid being criticised by either of them.

      The “wedge politics” is playing out entirely within the National Party as he tries to cling onto the leadership.

  5. Gosman 5
    26 September 2018 at 2:43 pm

    I am amazed that for people supposedly interested in politics enough to comment frequently on this blog many people fail to identify the political purpose of a political party doing something.

    • arkie 5.1
      26 September 2018 at 2:47 pm

      You egg. People are rejecting this politicking because it is hypocritical. You fail to understand that people disagree with NZ Politics being performed this way.

      • Gosman 5.1.1
        26 September 2018 at 3:04 pm

        No, a bunch of left wing people who would never support National reject this political tactic. They aren’t trying to appeal to you.

        • Muttonbird 5.1.1.1
          26 September 2018 at 3:13 pm

          Looks like identity politics from Bridges (I’m a hunter therefore I will not vote Labour). Something which RWNJs have railed against for some time…until it seems useful.

        • arkie 5.1.1.2
          26 September 2018 at 4:00 pm

          Yes, the “bunch of left wing people who would never support National on this site reject this political tactic” and you were just amazed by our lack of support for National playing politics…

          What’s your point, egg? You think this is smart politics, but you don’t support National? Who do you support then? You spend enough time attempting to divert from and defend them.

          • In Vino 5.1.1.2.1
            26 September 2018 at 7:39 pm

            arkie: good question. No response likely to my mind, because you are asking honesty from a sleazy, slippery, sly, pin-pricking, punctilious, pompous, devious, diverting, double-talking, meretricious troll.

    • Tricledrown 5.2
      26 September 2018 at 9:21 pm

      Gossip boy, Yet you don’t vote for National but blindly defend them at every opportunity.

      • Gosman 5.2.1
        27 September 2018 at 12:39 am

        Nope. I have attacked National on numerous occasions. I recently called Simon Bridges a moron or words to that effect.

  6. McFlock 6
    26 September 2018 at 2:52 pm

    A few things come to mind:

    1) if tahr numbers are 3.5 times the legislated level, where were the nats on this? Did the tahr suddenly boom in number overnight? Or did the nat minister of conservation simply ignore an inconvenient law, without even bothering to change it?

    2) a few years ago I’d thought that tahr were endangered in their native lands, but it turns out the himalayan tahr aren’t. But DoC do have a habit of wanting to eradicate unique breeds (thinking some pigs and horses) into extinction just because they might not “belong” here.

    3) if numbers are booming, why would hunters be pissed at a cull? Obviously there are far to many for recreational hunters to handle.

    4) on that note, I guess there are two types of hunter: the ones who like to track and search and “hunt”, and the others who just want to blaze away in an overpopulated or farmed area. Surely it’s no fun without a bit of a challenge…

    • You_Fool 6.1
      26 September 2018 at 3:06 pm

      3) if numbers are booming, why would hunters be pissed at a cull? Obviously there are far to many for recreational hunters to handle.

      This is what i don’t understand either… who is meant to be upset that the numbers are being reduced by 10k from the already way over-populated 30k? Esp. when the cull is more to try and keep the numbers somewhat steady, as opposed to growing rapidly when the breeding season kicks into gear….

      To answer my question, I assume it is industrialised hunting tours who charge an arm and a leg to take people with more money than sense out for some

      BIG GAME HUNTING (TM) (c)

      and not the everyday go bush sort of hunter, even though National are trying to pretend it is this second sort that will get hurt by this….

      • McFlock 6.1.1
        26 September 2018 at 3:19 pm

        Yeah – the sort who charges thousands to make sure their client bags something decent in a half-day outing with minimim discomfort and inconvenience.

        • You_Fool 6.1.1.1
          26 September 2018 at 3:22 pm

          It reminds me of how the opposition by Farmers to environmental concerns is actually only a thing for big multi-national farms run by conglomerates and not actual farmers. Actual farmers, if they stopped listening to National’s spin, would realise that most, if not all, Green Party policy is not that bad for them, and actually stuff they are doing anyway. The big industry-like farms have issues with it because they can’t drain all the money out of the land in 5 years… Real farmers are there for a life-time, or more…

    • Ngungukai 6.2
      26 September 2018 at 3:20 pm

      Many Tahr have come off the Pill in recent years hence we have had an explosion in Tahr numbers ?

    • JC 6.3
      27 September 2018 at 12:15 am

      …….”But DoC do have a habit of wanting to eradicate unique breeds (thinking some pigs and horses) into extinction just because they might not “belong” ….

      SOME Reading for you!

      “This management regime has become the generally accepted “status quo”. In 2004 a revised Kaimanawa Wild Horses Working Plan was prepared to reclarify the goals and objectives of this regime and guide its implementation until 2017.

      In 2010, the herd was reduced to 300 – the minimum number agreed in the plan. ”

      here.https://www.doc.govt.nz/nature/pests-and-threats/animal-pests/kaimanawa-horses/

      As for the Pigs….

      https://www.odt.co.nz/regions/southland/pigs-may-fly-mayor

      https://www.rarebreeds.co.nz/aucklandpigs.html

      https://www.doc.govt.nz/nature/pests-and-threats/animal-pests/tahr/

      And Nat petition ….

      http://www.hawea-hunting.co.nz/tahr-hunting/

      http://www.hawea-hunting.co.nz/hunting-packages-and prices#Tahr%20Hunting%20Prices%20New%20Zealand

      • McFlock 6.3.1
        27 September 2018 at 1:15 pm

        The mayor saved the pigs from DoC, no?

        As for the horses, in the 1990s they were reframed from “protected species” to “pest” in the 1990s. And reduced to the minimum allowable number (what other species does doc treat like that?). You reckon the horse population exists for any reason other than DoC aren’t allowed to kill them all?

    • Graeme 6.4
      27 September 2018 at 7:14 am

      One of the effects of the earlier culls, which were pretty brutal, I’ve seen lots of movie/video of tahr being machine-gunned from helicopters, was to dramatically improve the trophy quality. This led to the current trophy hunting industry.

      With the increase in numbers quality is going down and good heads are harder to find. Tahr are easier to find but there’s a lot of poor quality animals. They’ve also spread out and allowed more operators to enter the industry and created opportunities for less skilled hunters to get an animal.

      Another cull would probably help the trophy industry, but will make it harder for the weekenders. Hunting tahr is bloody hard, and skilled, work without a helicopter.

  7. Robert Guyton 7
    26 September 2018 at 3:18 pm

    Eugenie Sage gave the Nat’s a real stropping in the House today – she’s feisty-as! National are over-egging this pud and their bullet-soaked rhetoric is going to hurt them, I reckon. In the House the Nat asking the questions/levelling the accusations claimed that the ammunition suppliers were denying DoC the bullets needed for the operation – that sounds…Good Ol’ Boyish to me. The funniest response from Eugenie involved her pointing out that the legislation around tahr control was a National Party one and they had failed to attend to their own requirements. Go, the feisty Greens!

  8. Brutus Iscariot 8
    26 September 2018 at 3:19 pm

    Weird stuff from Soimun. No-one gives a farg, numbers of Tahr are out of control and even after this cull there will be plenty to go around for hunters.

    • weston 8.1
      26 September 2018 at 7:53 pm

      Yeah but we are relying on doc for the numbers arent we Brutus ?I have heard that the deerstalkers assoc has admitted there are too many tahr but thats about all the sources thats filtered through to my neck of the woods .Would help if media interviewed a larger cross section of interested parties so that we could be better informed …but they dont !and our state broadcaster RNZ definitely doesnt

  9. Robert Guyton 9
    26 September 2018 at 3:20 pm

    Mack Daddy’s comment was funny:
    “Devastated at losing their Roads of National Significance, National forlornly look to save any kind of tahr they can.”

  10. Robert Guyton 10
    26 September 2018 at 3:22 pm

    And full credit to MICKYSAVAGE’s header:
    National is now barking at Tahrs

  11. AsleepWhileWalking 11
    26 September 2018 at 4:57 pm

    HaTahrs back off!

  12. JessNZ 12
    26 September 2018 at 5:41 pm

    I wish being wrong deterred National voters, but they don’t care about the facts, certainly when it’s National’s failure to adhere to their own conservation ruling. All they want is simpleminded ammunition to appear in the news!

    The petition has appeared on my FB feed with the description ‘Do they want to kill everything in this country.. cats.. tahr… there are only 35000 left and they want to kill around 25000 of them.’

    I find the issue of culling for conservation disturbing myself, but I can’t even…

  13. mac1 13
    26 September 2018 at 5:43 pm

    Cue Simon Bridges for a photo op with a tahr.

    Camo gear, scoped rifle, dark glasses, boots.

    It’d make another great Caption contest.

    “Me Tahrzan. You game.”

  14. Macro 14
    26 September 2018 at 6:45 pm

    How the F**K does this stupidity by National fit with Bill’s $70m policy announced just days before the last election to make NZ predator free by 2050?

  15. JustMe 15
    26 September 2018 at 7:08 pm

    It’s truly amazing that all of a sudden, and now that they are so firmly in Opposition, that the NZ National Party MPs are so concerned about the Tahr cull.
    I am sure they most certainly lacked a voice of condemnation whenever there was a Kaimanawa horse cull especially when a cull of say the Kaimanawa horses or any other introduced animal was happening whilst there was a National government.
    It does appear National are very selective – oops I mean they suffer from selective amnesia when it suits them – as to their past antics when it came to the environment of New Zealand.
    National’s Simon Bridges almost relegated the Maui dolphins to extinction because all he could see was dollar signs for himself and National when it came to off-shore mining exploration.
    In 2014 this is what happened: A petition to “Sack Simon” climbed to more than 23,000 people following the revelation Mr Bridges offered the 3000km sq of the West Coast Marine Mammal Sanctuary for petroleum exploration. Mr Bridges told the Bay of Plenty Times the protest was unlikely to change anything.
    “There’s negligible risk to the Maui dolphin from petroleum activity and over 40 years of this on the west coast of the North Island or Taranaki there has not been a single reported incident where a Maui dolphin has been hurt by petroleum work.”
    The marine sanctuary is home to the critically endangered Maui’s dolphin, of which there are only 55 in the world.

    We all know National had a cavalier attitude when it came to the environment. They pursued money because it’s a God to them. They worship money more than they would ever care about what happens to the waterways of New Zealand.
    And so for National to ‘suddenly’ care about something shows a shallowness that is rampant through-out the whole National Party political system.
    I wouldn’t trust a National MP ever again. They are too selfish, self-centred, ego-ridden, greedy and a mess.

  16. Ngungukai 16
    26 September 2018 at 7:29 pm

    WE just need National to go Anti-1080 and that will F&*k everyone up even Eugene Sage and the Greens ?

  17. Michael who failed Civics 17
    26 September 2018 at 8:29 pm

    The Nats’ campaign seems to have worked: Sage has backed down. It seems like a replay of the campaign they waged to stop Megan Woods from putting an end to oil and gas exploration. Labour may be in government but it’s never in power.

  18. cleangreen 18
    27 September 2018 at 5:59 am

    National are hollow barking dogs.

    National = no substance.

  19. esoteric pineapples 19
    27 September 2018 at 8:37 am

    This is a good example of why hunting and trapping would never be able to replace 1080. If they can’t keep 35,000 tahr under control, how could they manage to eradicate all the possums, let alone the rats, mice, stoats etc

  20. solkta 20
    27 September 2018 at 8:53 am

    That’s tahrable.

  21. Doogs 21
    27 September 2018 at 11:39 am

    Check your dictionary people – the word is ‘thar’ which is a Nepali word for a variety of goat. Th other word ‘tahr’ is a political Greek/Turkish boundary line.

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