Tempers flare at dog-death meeting

Donna Bird (centre) called DoC 'parasites' as she was ejected from the Devonport Yacht Club last night. Photo / Dean Purcell

A woman was last night thrown out of a meeting held to discuss the North Shore's beach poisonings when she abused a Department of Conservation speaker and hurled objects at him.

Donna Bird was ejected as she shouted obscenities at Richard Griffiths, who was speaking about rodent eradication on Rangitoto and Motutapu Islands using bait poisoned with brodifacoum.

She said one of the things she threw was a tumour that had been taken out of her.

As she was removed from the Devonport Yacht Club about 7.40pm, she called DoC "parasites" and "disease mongerers" .

The meeting, chaired by North Shore City councillor Chris Darby, was set up so residents could ask questions of government agencies about the poisonings and deaths of dogs at Cheltenham and Narrow Neck and of the dolphin deaths in the Hauraki Gulf.

The hostility continued after Ms Bird was ejected when residents called out obscenities several times during the presentations and when they were invited to ask questions of the DoC, Auckland Regional Council and Auckland Regional Public Health Service staff.

Six dogs died and 15 others became unwell with symptoms consistent with ingestion of tetrodotoxin, a drug that can kill a human with a dose the size of two paper clips.

Many at the meeting thought the deaths were because of the brodifacoum poison drops and weren't convinced by officials' assurances there wasn't any link.

Mr Griffiths told the meeting toxicology results ruled out brodifacoum as being responsible. "I'm not sure what else we can say."

Many people who asked questions accused DoC of spreading poison in the gulf.

Dolphins and penguins have also died but Mr Griffiths said they suffered no internal bleeding, a telltale sign of brodifacoum.

One woman said she hadn't been convinced there wasn't a link between the drops and the deaths. Another accused agencies of being "blinded by science".

Some members of the 250-strong crowd left early, unhappy with the bad language being used by some of those attending as they called out and interrupted speakers.