Farmer wins protection

Press, 13 February 1986, Page 28

Farmer wins protection

PA Hamilton An Otorohanga farmer, Mr Tom O’Connor, has won a nine-year battle to get Government protection for harrier hawks and black shags. Mr O’Connor, a game hunter, decided in 1977 to take action about what he believed was unjustifiable shooting of the two species. The birds’ numbers do not put them near the endangered species list. In fact, the Australasian harrier, commonly known as the harrier hawk, has probably increased since the arrival of the car and the carnage of small animals left in its wake. It was the "unsporting” attitude of hunters and unjust accusations about the birds’ behaviour that urged on Mr O’Connor. “I could, see no reason to hunt them,” he said. The harriers took some young ducks, and the shags took the odd trout but that has been going on for thousands of years. It did not justify shooting

them, he said. “Often they are shot,, not killed, and left to die. It is a bad hunter who hasn’t a use for what he shoots,” he said. . In 1977, Mr O’Connor, armed with a discussion' paper outlining his beliefs, took his case to the Auckland Acclimatisation Society which he had just joined. Two years, two reports, and much research later Mr O’Connor’s findings went to the council of North Island Acclimatisation Societies and finally to the Wildlife Service. After much delay, Mr O’Connor knew that his battle had been won when he read in the newspaper that the Minister of Internal Affairs, Mr Tapsell had given partial protection to the birds. Under the regulations, harrier hawks and black shags cannot be hunted or killed by any person unless they are causing injury or damage to property on land occupied by that person.