Riddle me this. Which teenager does more to save New Zealand’s environment? The one that skips school for a week while waving a protest sign made from plastic or the one that shoots ten possums with a twenty-two rifle?
Possums are pests in New Zealand and kill millions of native birds every year. In their natural habitat Australia they are protected, but after being introduced to New Zealand for the fur trade, their population exploded. They chew their way through large amounts of native foliage every night.
Drury school is saving New Zealand’s flora one possum death at a time and instead of being praised for their practical hands-on environmentalism they have been attacked by the outrage brigade.
Animal rights advocates are upset over a rural south Auckland school’s “inhumane” possum-hunting fundraiser.
The annual possum hunt is organised by Friends of Drury School, a parent-run organisation. Hunters are encouraged to kill as many possums as possible over three nights. The corpses are then brought in for a final weigh-in, with the fur sold as part of the fundraiser.
The Drury Possum Hunt Facebook page says hunting possums is “an important part of our rural way of life”.Newshub
“BACK IN 2019 BY POPULAR DEMAND! The 2019 Drury Possum Hunt will be the 8th Annual Hunt and is shaping up to be the best one yet,” it says.
“We have hunters with rifles, bow and arrow and even some gals who trap. All doing our bit for pest control.”
Animal rights advocate Dr Lynley Tulloch, who has a PhD in environmental sustainability, has started a petition calling on Drury School to cancel the “death-fest”.
“Possum hunts teach young children that killing animals and glorifying in their deaths through prizegivings and other games is a good thing,” she says.
“The message it sends to young children is animal lives are less important than human lives and we can celebrate their deaths. All animal lives matter and if pest control is necessary they should be given respect.”
[…] Dr Tulloch is particularly concerned about allowing the use of bow and arrows to hunt, which she says means the possums will suffer even more than being hunted with guns.
“My main concern is the animals might endure unnecessary suffering. Because possums are pest animals many see them as less worthy of humane treatment,” […]
“Please raise your voice and join conservation experts and to tell Drury School that school possum hunts are not acceptable in today’s world,” she says.
[…] We want Drury School to cancel the event.”
Insisting that pests are killed humanely is one thing but to insist that they not be killed at all is a step too far. She says that all animals’ lives matter but ignores the fact that possums are not a native species and are killing our native flora and fauna. What about our precious native birds? Do their lives matter? If I was a possum I would rather be killed with a humane trap or a bullet to the head than die a terrible death from 1080.
Teenagers who learn to hunt and kill humanely should be encouraged as their actions make more of a difference to the environment than a thousand city kids virtue signalling their wokeness while marching up Queen Street taking selfies on their mobile phones.