The Animal Justice Party (AJP) will never support lethal population control measures for any animal. But 1080 poison especially should be banned immediately.

It is not just deadly and uncontrollable, it also kills slowly and painfully, sometimes taking days; there is no antidote.

Key Objectives

1. Ban all use and sale of 1080.
2. Support and promote alternative, non-lethal control measures (see our Introduced Animals Policy).

Background

1080, sodium mono-fluoroacetate, is a synthetic chemical which is potentially fatal to all organisms that require oxygen to live, including humans. The name “1080” was its initial product number when it was first marketed for sale. It is often wrongly described as a natural compound; however it is not found in nature. Chemically, 1080 is similar to, but different from, the plant-based compound potassium mono-fluoroacetate, to which it is compared.

1080 is a deadly poison that acts through ingestion, inhalation or skin absorption and is listed as a Schedule S7 (Dangerous Poison) in Australia and a Class 1a pesticide (Extremely Hazardous) by the World Health Organisation. It is used to kill introduced species such as wild dogs, rabbits, pigs, deer, cats and foxes and Australian native animals such as the dingo, and some marsupial species in certain areas (e.g. wallabies in Tasmania and on King Island).

It is deployed from the air by helicopter or placed on or in the ground, in a food considered desirable by the animals being targeted, typically meat, grain or carrots. It interferes with a critical energy-producing and metabolic process in all air-breathing organisms and is therefore non-selective and indiscriminate. Animals die a slow and prolonged death. An academic analysis of 1080 as a vertebrate pesticide concluded that 1080 is not humane. Even if the level of pain caused is disputed, harm and death are not acceptable control methods especially when the poison affects more than the targeted animals.

“If anyone tells you that 1080 can discriminate between pests
and native animals, they are talking complete and utter rubbish” -

Ian Shaw, Toxicologist.

Concerns and Risks

Significant concerns and risks with 1080 include:

1. It is a cruel and inhumane poison.
2. It kills non-target species, since it is not selective and cannot discriminate: people, native mammals, birds and insects, domestic and farmed animals can be killed through primary poisoning (ingesting baits) and secondary poisoning (eating poisoned animals or even licking their saliva). This can alter ecosystem balance.
3. Use of baits in urban and residential areas: Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority (APVMA) recommends that 1080 not be used in urban or residential areas as it poses risks to humans and companion animals.
4. Baited areas cannot be controlled or guaranteed: baits and poisoned carcasses may be cached or moved several kilometres by animals and therefore the baited area cannot be controlled or guaranteed.