Another nail I guess.
Heli-hunters to fight ban
But it's OK for it to rain
1080 poison apparently.
Heli-hunters are vowing to fight moves from Associate Conservation Minister Peter Dunne to ban their sport, saying any legislation to outlaw it "defies logic and common sense".
Heli-hunting is the practise of flying into high country areas and searching for trophy animals. The animals most frequently hunted were introduced tahr and chamois - breeds of goat - although deer and pigs were also hunted.
This week Dunne won a significant victory, when a High Court judge dismissed a case brought by a group of four helicopter operators and two hunting lodges appealing the minister's decision to deny them a 10-year heli-hunting consent, instead only allowing two years.
Dunne said the win paved the way for him to introduce legislation into Parliament, banning the practise outright.
According to the Department of Conservation, commercial heli-hunting was an established industry with mostly foreign clients paying a trophy fee of about $5000 per animal.
Colin Withnall, QC, the legal representative for aerial assisted helicopter hunting groups, said closing down the industry would cost the New Zealand economy millions of dollars.
But the Deerstalkers' Association has labelled it "abhorrent".
"It's absolutely abhorrent and it doesn't take place anywhere else in the world," Snow Hewetson, of the association's national executive, said.
"There's no fair play involved. There's no chance for the animal to escape. It's just someone sitting in a helicopter running the animal down until they're too tired to go any further and then shooting them.
"It's not sport, it's inhuman, it's not a good look for New Zealand."
But heli-hunting operating groups say they are doing the country a favour by keeping wild deer and goat numbers down.
Neville Cunningham, of Mt Cook Trophy Hunting, said the proposed ban went against "logic" and "common sense".
Cunningham said that as well as providing affluent tourists with an "adventure experience", such guided tours also helped the Department of Conservation with pest management.