Nature, not natives, must be the priority for Molesworth

Ospri's​ admission that it poisoned 90 per cent of deer in one area of Molesworth using aerial 1080 was unique. Not just because of the rare admission of culpability, more as a rule. Ospri does not monitor outcomes of its aerial 1080 operations.

Between 2008 and 2016 Ospri reported to the Environmental Protection Agency that, of the 2.75 million hectares of land (a third of the public conservation estate) aerially treated with 1080, they monitored possum numbers before and after the drops for a mere 7 per cent of it.

And the evidence of hundreds of dead ladybugs, a carnivorous insect, found on the carcasses of the poisoned deer on Molesworth, should be of equal concern to conservation, especially since the journal Biological Conservation reported that more than 40 per cent of insect populations are plummeting worldwide. But that's what we call conservation – demonising animals for their natural behaviour and then poisoning them.

Deer are a valuable game resource in New Zealand. Hunting is an integral part of our heritage and provides social, mental and physical wellbeing for about 167,000 recreational hunters, as well as putting free-range, organic, humanely killed and highly nutritious meat on the family table. Too few Kiwis can afford to even buy meat, let alone venison at $75 a kilogram.