Police are teaming up with the Department of Conservation and farmers to target illegal hunting and trespassing in a Southland conservation area.<\/p>\n
\u2018The Mid Dome Poaching Project\u2019 will put the spotlight on poachers and educate hunters on protecting private property and ensuring the safety of hunters and farmers.<\/p>\n
In a statement today, police said the\u00a0Mid Dome area has seen a rise in illegal hunting activity since 2022, with hunters breaching Doc permit conditions and trespassing onto privately owned farmland.<\/p>\n
Senior Sergeant Peter Graham said farmers bordering the Mid Dome Conservation Area\u00a0 in inland Southland have reported repeated incidents of poaching and safety concerns.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis project is about working together to educate hunters, enforce the law and protect Southland\u2019s rural communities.”<\/p>\n
Doc ranger Jono Airey said hunting permits were issued for public conservation land only.<\/p>\n
\u201cHunters must respect boundaries and seek permission before crossing private property. We’re committed to working with police and landowners to ensure responsible hunting practices.”<\/p>\n
Farmer Maurice King’s property borders the conservation area and he supports the project.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re not anti-hunting – we\u2019re anti-illegal hunting. Hunters need to know spotlighting from roads is illegal and they will be held to account.”<\/p>\n
The Mid Dome Poaching Project will operate throughout the summer hunting season and into the “roar period”, when deer mate, in April next year.<\/p>\n
Snr Sgt Graham appealed to the public to help them identify poachers.<\/p>\n
“We ask anybody to report suspicious behaviour to us, including suspicious vehicles or people, in your local area.<\/p>\n
“If it is happening now, call 111. If you are reporting information after the fact, call 105 or go online.”<\/p>\n
– Allied Media<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Police are teaming up with the Department of Conservation and farmers to target illegal hunting and trespassing in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":131195,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-131194","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131194","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=131194"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131194\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/131195"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=131194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=131194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=131194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}