Luxons Wildlife Policy

Luxon’s Policy on Wildlife

Dr Jo PollardPublished in the Christchurch Press,  August 2023
Dr Jo Pollard (BSc (Hons), PhD)

The National Party openly admits that its new policy to manage wild pigs and selected other animals as game, not pests, aims to win hunters’ votes.

Luxons-Wildlife-Policy

Hunting (harvesting) to control animal populations is natural. But labelling “game” and “pests” and managing them differently for political reasons isn’t. A strategy for animal control based on ecology would make more sense.

New policy could encourage responsible animal control: monitored, science-based, targeted, humane, uses locals, makes products, economically sound. That could replace the massive use of broad spectrum poisons and the groups that spread them (DoC, TbFree, OSPRI, ZIP, pest control by Regional Councils). MFE could take over conservation, and MPI could take over Tb (Mycobacterium bovis) control (it already manages Mycoplasma bovis).

Hopefully Luxon’s statement “we’ll continue to develop it over time” means that National’s new policy will mature into something really useful.

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Luxons Wildlife Policy