1080 in Tasmania
Tasmanian Conservation Trust
www.tct.org.au
tct6@bigpond.com

Currently around 80 tonnes of carrot bait impregnated with 1080 poison is laid in Tasmania annually to kill wallabies and possums: enough to kill about half a million creatures of many different species.

Tens of thousands of animals suffer a protracted and distressing death simply to maximise profits for forestry companies and a small percentage of farmers and graziers.

The public has no recourse to stop a 1080 drop in their neighbourhood despite the fact that many pet dogs are killed every year by 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.

The Tasmanian Conservation Trust has established 1080 Watch – to provide:

In Tasmania, the state government administers the use of 1080 poison which is used to kill Brush-tail Possums (Trichosurus vulpecula), Tasmanian Pademelons (Thylogale billardierii) and Bennetts Wallabies (Macropus rufogriseus) that browse pasture, crops or plantation seedlings. It is also employed to kill rabbits, however rabbit poisoning accounts for less than 10% of the poison used in Tasmania. 1080 is used by farmers, private forest growers and forestry companies such as Gunns, Forest Enterprises, Norske Skog and Forestry Tasmania.

A 1989 Tasmanian Government report "An Investigation into the use of 1080 in Tasmania" by the Wildlife Advisory Committee found that other species exposed to the threat of incidental poisoning are Wombats, Potoroos, Bandicoots (including the threatened Eastern Barred Bandicoot), the Tasmanian Bettong (extinct on the mainland), Cockatoos, Parrots, the Broad-toothed Rat, the New Holland Mouse and the Long-tailed Mouse. Contract workers who collect the dead animals for disposal report picking up Ring-tail Possums, Bettongs, Eastern Quolls, Shrike-thrushes, Forest Ravens, herons, hawks and owls. In fact, any creature that eats carrot is at risk of poisoning. Any animal or bird that eats meat or invertebrates that feed on carrion are also at risk.

In Western Australia 1080 (sodium monofluoroacetate) occurs naturally in some native plants, and as a result, native animals have evolved some tolerance to the toxin. In order to save threatened marsupial species from extinction in Western Australia, 1080 has been used to successfully to eradicate foxes and feral cats in some areas, as placental carnivores are very susceptible to the poison.

In other parts of Australia 1080 is used, in spite of growing opposition, to poison feral animals (rabbits, pigs, wild dogs) and Dingos. Even in those cases where 1080 is used for conservation purposes, 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.

Every year about 80 tonnes of carrot laced with 1080 is laid all over Tasmania to kill native animals: enough to kill half a million animals (30 grams of poisoned carrot - one small carrot - is a lethal dose for a Wombat, 2 grams of bait can kill a Potoroo).

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. 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 cruelty grounds

Secondary poisoning
Native carnivores, such as Tasmanian Devils, Quolls and the endangered Tasmanian Wedge-tailed Eagle that eat the victims of 1080 become poisoned themselves, getting a lethal or cub-lethal dose from poisoned animals or carcasses they eat. Clinical studies, where poisoned muscle tissue was fed to captive eagles, determined that an eagle would need a large quantity for a lethal dose. However, not only were the subjects of the test eagles from Western Australia where the fauna has developed some tolerance to the compound that occurs naturally in plants, but the study did not include an investigation of the effects of eating the vital organs including the stomach contents where the poison is accumulated, of sub-lethal doses on an individual bird's subsequent hunting success, the effect on eggs or the effects of poisoned flesh or viscera being fed to nestlings.

Claims have been made that eagles do not scavenge for their nestlings, but catch live prey which protects the infant birds from secondary poisoning. Even if this claim is true, a hunting eagle will not avoid poisoned animals. Quite the contrary, a poisoned animal staggering around during the day is easy prey.

Joeys
The "Code of Practice for Use of 1080 Poison for the use of 1080 in Tasmania" states "Any females recovered must be examined for pouch young and if one is present it must be humanely destroyed. (Suitable techniques include decapitation with a sharp knife or a heavy blow to the head…" In practice, the infants of poisoned marsupials that die in the bush and that are never found starve to death inside their dead mothers’ pouches. The people responsible for clearing the carcasses, working under time constraints, do not check pouches so joeys are buried alive.

Water contamination
1080 is residual in dead animal carcasses but not in soil. 1080 is stable in water where high levels of bacteria are not present, such as in a water tank. However, the government provides assurances that the dilution of the poison in large water volumes renders it harmless. If you source water downstream of a 1080 drop, your water supply may be contaminated by decomposing corpses that die in water courses or dams as animals seek to slake the thirst the poison gives them.

Alternatives
Alternatives for protecting crops from native animals browsing and grazing exist: electric and wallaby proof fences, sonic fencing, tree guards and deterrents, but these will never be adopted while 1080 is convenient to use and artificially cheap through public subsidisation of its administration. Forestry corporations have admitted that they have no reliable method for risk analysis, opting for prophylactic use of poison when there is even a possible risk to plantation seedlings. Responsible landholders already use alternatives in commercial situations. Exterminating any natural organism that threatens profitability is not a sustainable approach.

Pets and livestock
Most placental mammals are much more susceptible to 1080 poison than marsupials, so it is wrong headed to use 1080 to kill possums and wallabies because a proportionately high dose must be administered to kill a marsupial. The poison contaminates a carcase until it has totally decomposed. A dog can die an appalling death months after a 1080 drop, just by licking or chewing part of a decomposed poisoned carcase.

Poisoned marsupials can wander kilometres before they die, and remain lethal until they have decomposed entirely, so pets are at constant risk if there has been a 1080 drop within 3 km of the general area.

Some symptoms of secondary poisoning in placental carnivores (dogs, cats, pigs etc) are hypersensitivity to noise, copious drooling, and running about yelping and barking madly, trying to hide, trembling and hyper extension of the limbs.

If you think your dog or cat has sustained a dose of 1080 through secondary poisoning, ring your local vet for advice and take get the pet to the vet immediately along with the dead animal it ate, if you can find it. There is probably little your vet can do. A treatment is available called Monoacetin, which is kept by the Department of Primary Industries, Water and Environment, and available to vets. It is not an antidote and for best results the animal should be treated before symptoms are apparent. Sadly, most people do not suspect their dog has taken a piece of contaminated meat until the dog goes berserk or they find it dead in spite of taking precautions like confining their dog to their own yard, walking it on a leash, keeping it well fed and muzzling it.

How can you stop a 1080 drop?
Technically, you can't.

You can ask the landholder or forestry company intending to use 1080 to consider some other form of crop protection, such as sonic deterrents, wildlife proof fencing, tree guards, sacrificial crops or even shooting, which at least targets the browsers.

You are likely to have more success if you can mobilise a number of neighbours or your community and approach the intending poisoner together.

You can approach the media
Call the 1080 officer at the Parks and Wildlife Service and/or Primary Industry to obtain your own copy of the Interim Code of Practice for the Use of 1080 and to voice your concerns. The Code is also available on the internet. You can insist everything be done strictly according to the Code but this won’t stop the drop and offers little protection to dogs and/or wildlife.

You can consider taking legal action in the event that you suffer any detriment or loss due to the actions of a user of 1080 poison. This is somewhat difficult due to the existing testing facility in Australia not having a laboratory test that can determine the presence of fluoroacetate, making admissible evidence of accidental poisoning of pets or livestock impossible to obtain. A vet’s opinion that an animal died of 1080 poisoning based on the symptoms and the elimination of other causes is not sufficient in court according to legal advice.

You can attract animals away from the poison area by laying out unpoisoned carrots or rolled oats away from the poison line.

You may be liable to charges of trespass or prosecution under the Wildlife Act or Poisons Act if you:

The 1080 Code of Practice
A Parks and Wildlife Service officer should assess the proposed poison site and judge that there is a serious risk to crop or pasture and that alternatives such as fencing and shooting have been found unsuccessful for controlling native browsers and, when satisfied, issue a permit to kill wildlife as a last resort. The Nature Conservation Branch of the Department of Primary Industries, Water and Environment issue the permit and then the DPIWE Food Quality and Safety Branch is responsible for delivery of the poison.

From "Code of Practice for Use of 1080 Poison for the use of 1080 in Tasmania"

A copy of the Code of Practice can be found on the TCT website.

What you can do

Claim 1: "A small amount of 1080 is used in Tasmania compared to the mainland or New Zealand"
Between 9 and 12kg of 1080 is used annually in Tasmania – at a solution of 0.014% this makes about 80 tonnes of poisoned bait. This is enough to kill more than half a million birds and animals and more than 90% of this poison is laid specifically to exterminate Brush-tail possums, Tasmanian Pademelons (now extinct on the mainland) and Bennetts Wallabies, all of which browse on eucalypts.

Claim 3: "1080 is a naturally occurring compound."
Monofluoroacetate occurs in some plants (Gastrolobium species) that grow in northern and western mainland Australia. Cyanide occurs naturally: it does not make it acceptable to use against wildlife.

Claim 4: "Marsupials are less susceptible"
Yes, it is true that marsupials are less susceptible than many placental mammals, so a relatively concentrated dose is required to kill them. Even then victims wander kilometres from the poison site before they die, leaving contaminated carcasses littering a wide radius, toxic to scavengers and carnivores, particularly lethal to dogs. Captive Devils, Quolls and Wedge-tail Eagles fed poisoned muscle tissue in laboratory did not die, but the effects of eating entrails where the poison is concentrated, or the impact on survival of a sub-lethal dose are unknown. [McIlroy, J.C. 1981: The sensitivity of Australian Animals to 1080 Poison II Marsupial and eutherian carnivores and 1982: III Marsupial and eutherian herbivores and 1983: VII Native and introduced birds. Aust. Wildlife Res]

Mice are relatively resistant to the toxin, so birds that prey on mice, including owls, are prone to large secondary doses. Contractors find hawks and other birds but don’t record them. If local predator birds are destroyed, mice plagues may result.

Claim 5: "1080 is target specific."
1080 is only as target specific as the bait used, and in Tasmania carrot baits are used. Different species have varying tolerance to the toxin, but the baits are laid on open ground overnight so there is no control over the amount of bait any creature takes. Animals that eat carrot (bettongs, bandicoots, potoroos, wombats, some bird species) are susceptible. Animals that prey on poisoned animals are vulnerable – even a sub-lethal dose can compromise a predator’s ability to survive.

Claim 6: "1080 does not bio-accumulate."
Scientific studies indicate that 1080 does not accumulate in the soil [David, W. A., Gardiner, B. O 1966: Persistence of fluoroacetate fluoracetamide in soil. Nature 209 Bong, C. L., Cole, A. L. J., Walker, J. R. L. 1979: Effect of sodium monofluoroacetate (compound 1080) on soil microflora. Soil Biology and Microchemistry 11.] or in living tissue (animals either die or excrete it). However, it does remain toxic in the carcase of its victims until they have decomposed completely.

Claim7: "A lethal dose does not cause suffering."
The poison interferes with the animal’s ability to metabolise energy and, depending on how much of the bait victims have eaten, death may take up to 12 hours or more.

Poisoned animals are visibly distressed and fearful; they become paralysed, convulsing sporadically, unable to escape from predators and, fully conscious to the end, they eventually die from heart or respiratory failure. Their joeys starve in their pouches. In a report to the Australian National Parks and Wildlife Service "Incidence of Cruelty to Wallabies in Commercial and Non-Commercial Operations in Tasmania" 1987 the RSPCA called for a ban on 1080 in Tasmania due to its excessive cruelty.

Claim 8: "There are no alternatives in spite of exhaustive searches."
There are alternatives to 1080 – fencing, deterrents and repellents exist, the costs are comparable and they are at least as effective, sometimes more.

In 1999 Nadia Marsh did ‘A Review of the Practices for Monitoring and Controlling Browsing Damage within Forestry Tasmania Districts’ for Forestry Tasmania and noted that ‘The major problem was the apparent ineffectiveness of 1080 poison against some species and/or individuals resulting in a continuing browsing problem.’

Primary producers all over the world protect their crops from browsing animals without resorting to poison. Calling for more research is a stalling tactic – if 1080 were banned now, alternatives would be taken up immediately.

1080 is artificially cheap because, as a ‘public service, DPIWE absorb the cost of assessing the need for crop protection and permit administration. The poison, baits and delivery are paid by the user.

In 1983, forest scientist, Helen Statham, found that "poisoning [with 1080] did not stop damage and in fact, scarcely slowed down its rate." ("Browsing Damage in Tasmanian Forest Areas and Effects of 1080 Poisoning" Forestry Commission, Tasmania)

Nadia Marsh’s "A Review of the Practices for Monitoring and Controlling Browsing Damage within Forestry Tasmania Districts" for Forestry Tasmania in 1999, noted that "no formal assessment of a site’s risk from browsing damage existed. The assessments that did take place typically consisted of drive-by observations and past experience[s] of an area." According to Marsh, "The major problem was the apparent ineffectiveness of 1080 poison against some species and/or individuals resulting in a continuing browsing problem."

There are no medical records and no investigation of inadvertent or intentional human 1080 poisoning in Tasmania and, in reality, no laboratory test available even if 1080 poisoning was suspected and a tissue sample taken.

Symptoms of 1080 poisoning in humans would be easily diagnosed as a heart attack. There are no records available on the incidence of cardiac problems associated handling of 1080 poison by landholders, contract workers or employees.

Claim 10: "Occupational health and safety standards are stringently applied."
Occupational exposure levels to toxins are calculated using a TLV – TWA formula, however the level of administration and monitoring required to ensure observance of the Threshold Limit Value – Time Weighted Average in the field by contractors laying 1080 is impossible to implement, much less enforce. This standard calculation is not taught as part of the 1 day training course run by DPIWE for contract workers engaged in 1080 laying. The exposure of workers who work with 1080 on a daily basis, often in remote areas and sometimes alone, is unknown.

Contract layers complain of headaches while they are handling the poison and collecting the dead animals but there has been no formal complaint received and no review of handling methods has been undertaken.

From a statement by a former contract 1080 layer who worked regularly for Gunns over a six month period and who was sub-lethally poisoned: