Wildlife Tasmania

About Lethal Control

Species of wildlife that impact on human money-making activities, such as forestry and farming, are ‘controlled’, in most cases, using lethal methods. These methods include the use of poisons, shooting and trapping. The species that are most commonly targeted are Bennetts Wallabies, Tasmanian Pademelons and Brushtail Possums (cross reference primary industry and commercial fact sheets). With populations that breed up to match the available food, the killing cycle is endless, having a long term impact on the social and age structures of wildlife populations (see….sheet or more here).

Use of the cruel poison 1080 is on the decrease. In 2005 The Tasmanian Government phased out the use of 1080 by Forestry Tasmania, due in no large part to public disgust, and launched a research program into alternatives. However the private forestry industry and farmers still use 1080, and Forestry Tasmania has switched to shooting instead. The intention is that 1080 usage be phased out by 2015. Unfortunately, much of the research centres on lethal methods of keeping marsupials away from crops and regenerating forests.

There have been trials into ‘best practice’ shooting, night vision goggles to support shooting activities, trapping methods, development of a commercial industry to come out of the shooting and trapping, and other types of poisons such as cynanide.

1080 and Other Poisons

1080

Sodium monofluoroacetate or 1080 is a white powdery compound developed as a rat poison in the 1940s. In Tasmania it is mixed to a 0.014% colourless, flavourless, odourless solution. Chopped carrots are saturated in this solution, dyed blue and laid along the edges of forest where the browsing animals find them when they emerge for their nocturnal feeding.

(Awaiting more recent data). In 2007,,,,Currently around 40 tonnes of carrot bait impregnated with 1080 poison is laid in Tasmania annually to exterminate wallabies, pademelons and possums: enough to kill about half a million creatures of many different species. The amount used depends to some extent on weather conditions, ie drought results in a reduction of the use of 1080.

Approximately one third of 1080 is used by farmers, with the remaining two thirds used by private forest companies.

Tens of thousands of birds and animals suffer a protracted and distressing death simply to maximise profits for forestry companies and a small percentage of farmers. The public has no way to stop a 1080 drop in their neighbourhood and many pet dogs die in agony every year through accidental secondary poisoning. Secrecy surrounds the use of 1080 and its administration by the Tasmanian government. There is no public record of who uses 1080 or where it is laid. People who collect the dead animals for disposal report picking up Ring-tail Possums, Wombats, Bettongs, Potoroos, Eastern Quolls, Shrike-Thrushes, Forest Ravens, Herons, Hawks and Owls.

Even where 1080 is used for conservation purposes against feral animals on the mainland, its use is contentious because of its excessive cruelty to victims. Only in Tasmania is 1080 used routinely and indiscriminately to poison native wildlife species.

Death by 1080 is not painless: it is prolonged and distressing. Animals stagger around, thirsting, frightened, disoriented and convulsing, sometimes for days until they succumb to central nervous system collapse, coronary or respiratory failure or are attacked by predators they cannot fend off due to paralysis. A 1987 RSPCA Report “Incidence of Cruelty to Wallabies in Commercial and Non-Commercial Operations in Tasmania” recommended the use of 1080 be banned on the grounds of its excessive cruelty.

Joeys of poisoned marsupials, starve or are poisoned from their mother’s milk inside their pouches. The people responsible for clearing the carcases, working under time pressure, do not check pouches so joeys are buried alive.

Most placental mammals are much more susceptible to 1080 poison than marsupials. Poisoned marsupials can wander kilometres before they die, and remain lethal until they have decomposed entirely, so pets are at risk if there has been a 1080 drop within 3 km. Some symptoms of secondary poisoning in placental carnivores (dogs, cats, pigs etc) are hyper-sensitivity to noise, copious drooling, running about yelping, barking madly, trying to hide, trembling and hyper- extension of the limbs.

Cynanide

Cynanide has been used widely in New Zealand, in conjunction with 1080, to kill vast numbers of brushtail possums. The possums were introduced to that country in the 1830s. A particular formulation of cynanide, called Feratox, is being trialed in Tasmania (has been – when will trial finish?).Tidy up this bit later..

Cynanide kills more quickly than 1080, but no less violently. Unconciousness for wallabies has averaged 10 minutes in trialls, with death averaging 20 minutes1. Clinical effects occur in rapid succession. Initially there can be excitement and generalised muscle tremor. Animals may salivate, void faeces and urine, and gasp for breath. Convulsions will follow due to anoxia2 Researchers have called this death humane!

Food is provided in a feeder for a few of days to lull the animals into a false sense of security. Then their trust is betrayed with the food being replaced with encapsulated cynanide pellets. The animals die within metres of the feeding station.

New Zealand has a completely different range of species to Tasmania, and no native mammals. It is claimed Feratox has little impact on non-target species, and that one style of feeder can be used to target all three so called ‘pest’ species. However Tasmania has a number of species that could easily reach feeders designed for pademelons, wallabies and brush-tailed possums. Ring-tailed possums, bettongs, bandicoots, potoroos, quolls, grey kangaroos and wombats, will also be able to access these feeding stations.

Because of its fast action cyanide is considered, in a number of countries, to be too hazardous for pest control and it’s accessibility in the landscape presents a serious biohazard.3

Shooting

There is a twelve month ‘season’ for shooting Pademelons and Wallabies in Tasmania. Whilst shooting with spotlights and from a vehicle is prohibited by law, landowners can easily obtain a crop protection permit which will allow spotlight and vehicle shooting. They may then issue that permit to licenced hunters. Shooters can also obtain commercial licence so that they can sell the meat and skins of their victims. There is no set limit on the number that can be killed.

<>Hunting wallaby using shotguns is banned in four mainland states for commercial shooters because the guns are less accurate so injured animals can escape to suffer and die from injuries, infection or starvation, however shotguns are widely used in Tasmania. <>

Shooters use packs of dogs to flush animals out from the undergrowth and in some cases, to maul and kill them. Tasmania is the only State in Australia where it is legal to use hunting dogs for the purpose of flushing out and killing native wildlife. Hunting dogs can cause extreme distress, severe injuries and death to Bennetts Wallabies and Tasmanian Pademelons and also other protected species: Quail, Native Hens and other ground dwelling birds, Bettongs, Potoroos, Eastern Quolls, Bandicoots and Wombats. The animals panic, bolting from their hiding places at great speed which can result in broken necks and limbs from collisions with fences and the involuntary ejection of pouch young due to stress.

Hunted animals may also suffer from capture myopathy, a condition caused by exertion and muscular stress. The practice is not supervised and there are anecdotal reports of joeys being fed live to dogs or being left to die of exposure.

Trapping

All leghold traps are banned in Tasmania. There has been research as a part of the 1080 alternatives program into using capture traps, holding the animal in a cage. The animals are then killed.

Trials into trapping shows the futility and carnage caused by lethal control. Over the space of 16 months 379 possums were trapped at the one site at 11 different occassions over more than 12 months. Whilst the first month had the highest number captured (75), the second last had the second highest number (56). Animals will continually repopulate areas where the feeding is good. Either adult animals moving around in search of food, or in the case of possums often young animals seeking their own territory4.

Trapping puts a lot of stress on trapped animals, who are confined to the trap until collected and shot. Trapped animals exhibit “acute anxiety activity”, pacing backwards and forwards up to 100 times5. The fact that they then settle down, does not mean that they are calm or in any way content, merely that, they have been forced to resign themselves to their captivity for the present time In much the same way as the human animal reacts to being imprisoned.

What You Can Do

A range of non-lethal alternatives exist for protecting crops, pastures and plantations from native animals (see Alternatives Fact Sheet). Tell people about them.

Lobby the government and call for funding assistance for fencing for farmers to protect their crops and pasture. Ask for research to focus solely on non-lethal methods of reducing wildlife impact on human activities.

Alternatives will never be adopted while 1080 or other poisons are convenient to use and artificially cheap through public subsidy for its administration. Nor will they develop while killing in any form is the accepted norm. Killing is violence and humans are perpetuating violence against native animals – they are in fact waging war!