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A Piece of New Zealand History – Exclusive Acquisition Opportunity

New Zealand claims to be the world leader in wild animal management and animal pest control. To maintain this self-assessed accolade, New Zealand’s Department of Conservation (and other government agencies) rely almost entirely on a technique that involves aerially spreading Compound 1080 poison bait across forested land and water. This practice continues to this day.

Compound 1080 (Sodium Fluoroacetate) is extremely toxic to all animals – mammals (including humans), birds, fish, insects, and plants. Sodium Monofluoroacetate (1080) Hazards to Fish, Wildlife, and Invertebrates: A Synoptic Review. Minute quantities can kill adult humans. There is no recovery from a lethal dose. There is no antidote.

New Zealand uses more Compound 1080 poison than all other countries in the world, put together. Interestingly, the New Zealand Government is the owner of the poison factory (https://orillion.com/) that imports the raw poison into New Zealand, and that manufactures that raw poison into toxic bait. The baits are composed of cereal food mixed with 0.15% pure 1080 poison (Sodium Fluoroacetate). The baits are distributed across land and waterways by helicopters, at the same rate, and enough poison to kill over 80 cattle beasts, or 2000 possums, or 50 humans, across every hectare (hectare = 2.2 acres) at the standard rate of 2kg of bait/Ha (166 x 12 gram baits/Ha). The forest waterways are spread with the poison at the same rate as the land areas. Some large rivers are sometimes buffered, but in most aerial operations no waterways are excluded from being spread with the poisonous food bait. https://www.tv-wild.com/toxin-distribution-charts

Over half of all New Zealand’s national parks and state forests and their waterways are repeatedly (every 2 to 5 years) aerially spread with Compound 1080 poison bait.

Accidental discharges are common, with farm stock, pets, untargeted wildlife, and public water source points regularly poisoned.

 

Not surprisingly, the aerial Compound 1080 poisoning operations have been a contentious issue in New Zealand, for decades, and they continue to be so. Although mostly ignored by mainstream media, protests are common, and often extremely passionate. The following video is one example of a large, peaceful protest at NZ Parliament https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhnoktr3z8Y

Brothers Clyde and Steve Graf have been leaders in producing outdoors and hunting videos and DVDs in New Zealand since 1997. Their skills in filming and photographing native wildlife have proved to be vital in their journey to raise awareness about the ongoing use of 1080 poison in New Zealand.

In 2006 the brothers were asked by local communities to produce a documentary on the ongoing use of Compound 1080 in New Zealand. Their first documentary - A Shadow of Doubt – was released in 2007 and played several times on national television.

Then in 2008, while filming in the Kahurangi National Park, the brothers chanced upon native wildlife consuming a poisoned animal carcass. This led them to produce their second documentary, Poisoning Paradise – Ecocide New Zealand, which went on to win 4 international environmental awards. https://youtube.com/watch?v=yQRuOj96CRs&feature=shares Mainstream media has refused to play the documentary in New Zealand.

The poisoning industry practice of leaving poisoned animal carcasses lying in the forests where they die, results in native wildlife feeding on decomposing carcasses, and being poisoned themselves. Compound 1080 poison causes secondary poisoning, meaning any animal, bird, fish, or insect killed by the poison results in the carcass being equally toxic to any feeder up the food chain.

    

The Graf brothers have produced dozens of short films and documentaries on the issue of Compound 1080 poison use in New Zealand. Thousands of hours of in-the-field footage have been accumulated. Thousands of photos have been taken. Hundreds of documents collected. Dozens of interviews with scientists, doctors, farmers, and community members have been recorded during their advocacy term. All this information is being surrendered with this acquisition opportunity.

Following the death of their Father, who was a huge inspiration for their environmental work, and after 15 years of full-time effort, the Graf brothers have decided it’s time to move away from their Compound 1080 poison advocacy work.

Some of their work is presented on this site https://www.tv-wild.com/ and on their YouTube channel The Graf Boys

https://www.youtube.com/thegrafboys. The full collection of footage, interviews, photographs, and documentation is being made available in this acquisition opportunity.

Expressions of interest can be emailed to thegrafboys@protonmail.com (Attention Nigel Wayne).

Here is a list of some of the Graf brothers short films and documentaries (to be included in the acquisition).

 

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