In the November 1 Echo classifieds, directly under the meaty blowfly, was an announcement by the NSW state Department of Planning and Environment (DPE), that from Monday, September 25 through to Monday, December 18, the beach and dunes of South Ballina Beach will be baited with 1080 poison. 1080, or sodium fluoroacetate, is one of the most toxic poisons on the planet. It is categorised by the federal government in the highest bracket of poisons, alongside arsenic and strychnine. Only five other countries on the planet besides good ol’ Australia allow its use.
The US banned 1080 back in the 1970s after it was linked to human deaths. But the DPE knows best.
There is no antidote to 1080. Any living being that consumes it will die a horrific and excruciating death. It kills everything: introduced animals, native animals, herbivores, predators, snakes, reptiles, raptors, the lot. It should be ideal then to exterminate the plague of foxes that sunbake on South Ballina Beach. How many foxes have been seen on South Ballina Beach hassling the threatened shorebirds? Is there a count? What is the methodology used to justify the obscene decision to pepper a public beach with deadly poison? I haven’t received any response from the DPE as yet.
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
