Currently more than 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 animals of many different species.
Most of these tonnes of bait are used in forestry and plantation establishment, the rest is used to protect crops and pasture. Tens of thousands of animals suffer a protracted and distressing death simply to ensure bigger profits for forestry companies and some farmers.
The public has no recourse to stop a 1080 drop in their neighbourhood despite the fact that many pet dogs are killed every year. Secrecy surrounds the use of 1080 and its administration by the Tasmanian government because its use is so contentious.
In Tasmania, the state government administers the use of 1080 poison which is used to kill Brush-tail Possums, Tasmanian Pademelons and Bennetts Wallabies that browse pasture or plantation seedlings. It is used by farmers, private forest growers and forestry companies such as North Forest Products, Boral, ANM and Forestry Tasmania.
A 1989 Tasmanian Government report 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. In fact, any creature that eats carrot is at risk of poisoning.
Every year about 80 tonnes of carrot laced with 1080 is laid all over Tasmania: 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, frightened, disoriented and convulsing, sometimes for days until they succumb to central nervous system collapse, coronary failure or are attacked by predators they cannot fend off.
Native carnivores, such as Tasmanian Devils, Quolls and the endangered Tasmanian Wedge-tailed Eagle that eat the victims of 1080 become poisoned themselves. 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 there is no understanding of the effects of eating the vital organs where the poison is accumulated, of sub-lethal doses on an individual bird's subsequent hunting success, the effect on its eggs or the effects of poisoned prey being fed to nestlings.
The infants of poisoned marsupials starve to death or die of hypothermia inside their dead mothers pouches.
In Western Australia 1080 (sodium monofluoroacetate) occurs naturally in some native plants, and as a result, native animals have evolved to be less susceptible. So 1080 has been used to eradicate foxes and feral cats in some areas, as they are very susceptible to the poison, in order to save threatened species from extinction. Even in those cases, 1080 use is contentious because of its excessive cruelty. In Tasmania the dose rate in the carrot baits is relatively high in order to kill marsupials that have some natural resistance to the toxin, and their corpses are rarely collectd and so lay around all through the landscape and even under houses, lethal to dogs.
1080 is residual in dead animal carcasses but not in soil or water. However if you source water downstream from a 1080 drop, your water supply may be contaminated by decomposing corpses that die in water courses or dams.
Placental mammals are much more susceptible to 1080 poison than marsupials, so it is peculiar that 1080 is used to kill possums and wallabies as a relatively high dose must be administered to kill a marsupial. The poison stays in 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.
As the poisoned marsupials can wander kilometres before they die, and remain lethal until they have decomposed entirely, your pets are at constant risk if there has been a 1080 drop in your locality as a poisoned animal can blunder into yards, under tank stands or buildings.
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, and other symptoms of extreme distress.
If you think your dog or cat has sustained a dose of 1080 through secondary poisoning, ring your local vet for advice and take the pet to the vet immediately along with the dead animal it ate, if you can find it. There is a supposed antidote to the poison, however it is only effective if administered prior to the onset of symptoms.
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. You can insist everything be done strictly according to the Code.
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.
You can attract animals away from the poison area by laying out unpoisoned carrots or rolled oats away from the poison line.
If you:
wear rubber gloves to pick up baits and put them in a sturdy plastic bag and bury them deeply or burn them before animals can get to them;
spray poisoned carrot baits with a brew made by boiling quassia bark in water; or
make a racket in the vicinity of a 1080 drop to scare animals away from the poison –
you may be liable to charges of trespass or prosecution under the Wildlife Act or Poisons Act.
A Department of Primary Industry officer issues the poison once satisfied that adjoining neighbours and anyone with land within 500m have been informed in accordance with the Code. Consent must be obtained from the occupants of any house within 200m of the intended poison line. Landholders failing to notify neighbours will not be issued with poison, according to the Code
Dead animals lying in paddock, dams, streams or bush without apparent reason;
Nocturnal animals abroad in broad daylight that appear disoriented and fatigued, periodically convulsing;
If you are an adjacent landholder or have land within 500m of the intended poison line you should be given written notification at least 4 working days prior to a 1080 drop
Landholders laying poison must display a red, black and white '1080 Laid' sign prominently on their boundary;
Carrots in piles or in a furrow dug along native bush or boundary fences. Freebaiting is done several times: unpoisoned carrots are laid to attract as many as possible to the site for poisoning;
and
Poisoned carrot is dyed with blue food dye and is laid along a furrow, strewn about or placed in piles where the animal's runs emerge from the bush.
