Rats threatened to take over under the failed 50:50 governance model at Maungatautari Reserve

Alf was delighted to learn that the year-long battle about who should have how much say in the running of a wildlife reserve in Waikato has been resolved.

The Maungatautari Reserve is a 3400 hectare area of forested extinct volcano land in the Waikato basin between Cambridge, Te Awamutu and Putaruru.

The governance brouhaha has threatened the protection of the wildlife behind a multi-million-dollar predator-proof fence.

The dispute embraced funders of the Maungatautari Reserve, the Waipa District Council, Environment Waikato, a handful of surrounding landowners and local iwi, Ngati Koroki Kahukura.

And it threatened to derail years of work at the wildlife sanctuary near Karapiro.

Now here’s the important bit:

It’s a matter of how you order things – what we regard as a pest can be shipped to the US as pets

Alf this morning is admiring the enterprise of a Kiwi business that exports wallabies to the United States for sale in pet shops.

We are well rid of the wallabies which are (a) Australian and (b) pests, although some of Alf’s mates reckon that once a creature has been identified as Australian we can take it for granted it is a pest.

Alas, the company doing the exporting has been dragged into an international probe into animal cruelty.

Rotorua-based Dama Exporters was dobbed in to the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries (MAF) by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA).

It’s called progress: namby-pamby consumers will beat an egg but want cockies to be kind to cows

Alf became wistful at breakfast, as he mused on the good old days when a bloke could whack the kids when the buggers misbehaved or wallop a cow that became wayward on its wanderings to the milk-shed.

Nowadays some interfering busy-body will report you to the authorities. Next thing you know, a hefty penalty will have been imposed.

These musings were prompted by news that a North Canterbury farmer, a John Dalmer, has been fined $17,500 and ordered to pay court and inquiry costs of more than $60,000 for letting his stock starve.