New Zealand conservationists love to hate possums for killing native birds and spreading disease.
But the introduced marsupials do not deserve cruel treatment just for existing, says Christchurch academic and conservationist Dr Emily Major.
"Possums are here because of colonisation but they're also victims of colonisation too. It's not their fault they were brought here, so why can't we treat them with some compassion?"
Photo: chill/123RF
Major's research is founded on speciesism - the biases we have towards non-human animals and how this affects our relationships with them.
Moving to Aotearoa from Canada - where the native Virginia opossum is "kind of revered" for its help in reducing Lyme disease - she was stunned by how harshly Kiwis view the ubiquitous brushtail possum.
For her PhD thesis Possums are as Kiwi as fish and chips, Major interviewed 25 people from various backgrounds about their concepts of possums.
The title - a quote from one of Major's interviewees - references the fact that since being introduced in the 19th century, for better or worse, possums have become part of New Zealand society.
The Predator Free 2050 campaign sends a message that to protect New Zealand's native environment every Kiwi needs to believe "possums are bad", Major says.
"We need to find more compassionate and kind ways of going about [controlling possums] rather than killing en masse and in some ways celebrating and rewarding certain acts of cruelty.
"Not to say that every person that participates in any sort of pest control is cruel. That's not what I'm saying. But as a society, we need to consider what 'humane means' and how that can really become a part of conservation.'
Major finds it "concerning" how children are encouraged to view and treat possums at events like Paparoa Primary School's annual Possum Purge.
"The first time I heard about that was kind of like 'Huh?' … I thought it was so fascinating, in a bad way.
She says she's not criticising children who participate in pest control or the parents but more what is being encouraged on a societal level.
"We're banding together to try to get rid of possums in a way that - in my PhD participants' opinions and in the research that I've done - is not necessarily the healthiest way for [children] to develop their empathy.
"It's really important that conservation, particularly conservation education and programmes, are thought of and curated really carefully, especially when they include children. I think just we need an education overhaul, really."
While it's easy to scapegoat possums as 'public enemy number one', human behaviour is the primary reason Aotearoa's native environment is struggling, Major says.
"What really came through in the research was that a lot of the environmental destruction we're facing in New Zealand has to do with anthropogenic or human causes.
"The way that we frame possums in society is 'us versus them'. The possum is the enemy, the human is the hero. This framing is a way for us to cope with the reality of what's happening in the environment."
Dr Emily Major Photo: Supplied
