The New Zealand Herald reported earlier this week:
A conservationist keen to do his bit for the country’s Predator Free 2050 goal is urging gardeners to purchase dead possums from him instead of buying blood and bone for fertiliser this spring.
Wayne Parsonson lives beside the Maungataniwha Forest and is a member of its guardianship project group Honeymoon Valley Landcare. However, he says the possum initiative is his independent venture, which he hopes will inspire others nationwide to follow suit...
Parsonson had caught 1250 possums in the past year.
The fur was plucked and sold to be blended with merino wool for warm, natural clothing.
The ungutted carcasses were rich with nutrients to enliven soil ecology, he said.
For fertilising purposes, he was offering 11 frozen possum carcasses for $35.
Sales were “ticking over” nicely, Parsonson said.
First, good on Wayne Parsonson for doing something about pest possums. And I hope he continues in his efforts. The only good possum is a dead one in my view, except in Australia where, for some reason, they are beloved by many locals. However, I would not like to see a thriving market in possum carcasses.
To see why, we first need to talk a little bit about cobras. As I wrote back in 2015:
One of the most famous (possibly apocryphal) stories of unintended consequences took place in British colonial India. The government was concerned about the number of snakes running wild (er... slithering wild) in the streets of Delhi. So, they struck on a plan to rid the city of snakes. By paying a bounty for every cobra killed, the ordinary people would kill the cobras and the rampant snakes would be less of a problem. And so it proved. Except, some enterprising locals realised that it was pretty dangerous to catch and kill wild cobras, and a lot safer and more profitable to simply breed their own cobras and kill their more docile ones to claim the bounty. Naturally, the government eventually became aware of this practice, and stopped paying the bounty. The local cobra breeders, now without a reason to keep their cobras, released them. Which made the problem of wild cobras even worse.
Now, think about the case of possums. The government isn't providing a bounty for killing possums (which I've already written about). However, if a thriving market in possum carcasses develops, then possum hunters will have a strong incentive to kill possums for profit. That sounds like a great thing. However, killing wild possums takes a lot of effort. It would be much less effort for 'hunters' to raise their own possums, and then kill them in cages. So, some entrepreneurial folks will effectively start 'farming' possums. It is entirely possible that there would be more possums overall as a result.
So, while I admire Parsonson's backyard efforts in killing possums, and I'm happy for him to profit a little from the activity, I wouldn't like to see this market grow too much.
Read more:
No comments:
Post a Comment