Wednesday 10 May 2017

Rebel with a cause

I love Roger Beattie.

Weka are endangered, but they breed easily on his farm at Banks Peninsula. He's just prohibited, by dumb rules, against breeding them for profit. Whether this is DoC bloodymindedness, Vogonity, or refusal to be shown up by somebody doing a better job of conservation that DoC is - that's anybody's guess.

And so, annoyed with silly DoC rules around farming weka, Roger's making a point. He's adding weka feathers to some hats and selling them.

I apologise for the poor quality scan below - it's all I've got.


Farmed species don't go extinct. 

I look forward to Roger's eventual book, the promised title of which is "Why Bureaucrats are Bastards." 

Update: the toque comes with two tags. Read 'em. 




New Zealanders should be known as 'Weka' because they are closer to our psyche than Kiwi. Weka are a vulnerable species of flightless bird endemic to New Zealand. They are cheeky, outgoing and vivacious. We are using Banks Peninsula as a base for the re-introduction of the Eastern Buff Weka back into Canterbury. We fully support the farming of the Weka as a means of saving them from extinction. No farmed species has ever died out.

The Weka feather in our Weka Woo Hat symbolises our support to them.

Weka Woo Hat 

No comments:

Post a Comment