Gore's iconic brown trout statue and welcome sign were defaced overnight. Photo: GREENPEACE AOTEAROA / SUPPLIED
A stoush has erupted over a Greenpeace stunt involving Gore's brown trout statue with Federated Farmers calling it "vandalism" and Greenpeace labelling them as "science deniers".
Greenpeace Aotearoa gave the town's brown trout statue cartoon-style crosses for eyes and rebranded the sign to read 'Welcome to Gore - where dirty dairy wrecked the water' on Tuesday night, saying it was a way of highlighting Gore's drinking water crisis.
In response, Federated Farmers labelled Greenpeace "extreme" and the stunt "vandalism" as it reiterated its call for the group to be stripped of its charitable status.
Police said they would not be taking any further action as the protest signs had been removed and there was no permanent damage.
Last Friday, local residents were told not to drink the tap water after high levels of nitrate were found in the water supply.
The notice was lifted on Monday evening.
Federated Farmers has called for Greenpeace to produce the evidence backing its claims that linked nitrate contamination of Gore's drinking water and intense dairying, but Greenpeace said a mass of scientific literature was on their side and the evidence was well-established.
Greenpeace spokesperson Will Appelbe said Gore's giant brown trout statue was now a beacon of the industry's pollution of drinking water and levels of nitrate contamination had worsened since the group offered free nitrate tests to Gore residents two years ago.
"This problem isn't going to go away simply by diluting the water - for many rural communities, nitrate contamination will get worse unless action is taken to address the source of the pollution: the intensive dairy industry," he said.
Greenpeace was calling for the government to scrap its proposed changes to freshwater management and standards, saying they would weaken freshwater protections and make freshwater pollution worse.
Federated Farmers said the vandalism was a shameless attempt to divide the rural community and spread "anti-farm propaganda".
It made a similar call in April after the group occupied part of Port Taranaki to protest the use of palm kernel.
Southland Federated Farmers president Jason Herrick said it was "a total abuse of charitable status" and it was the latest illegal publicity stunt from the group.
"These activists are total cowards who are slinking around in the shadows vandalising property under the cover of darkness," Herrick said.
"There's a reason they've done this at night. They knew it was dodgy behaviour - and that they'd never get away with it in Gore during daylight hours. We're a tight-knit community down here in Southland. Farming plays a huge role in not only our local economy, but in our social fabric too."
Jason Herrick said Greenpeace needed evidence to back its claims that dairy farming raised the nitrate levels in Gore's water supply.
"I think the local authorities and the regional council would be quite keen to see that evidence if that's what they've got," he said.
"False claims and false information is fairly dangerous out in the wider community and that's exactly what they've done here."
Greenpeace Aotearoa executive director Dr Russel Norman said a mass of scientific evidence showed intensive dairy results in nitrate leaching into groundwater.
"In Gore, of course, one of the water sources for the town is located on a dairy farm so the connection between dairy intensification and contamination of water sources is extremely well established," he said.
"Really, you have to be a science denier like Federated Farmers to challenge that."
He challenged Herrick's labelling of the stunt as "vandalism".
"Is it vandalism to destroy the rivers and lakes of Southland and pollute people's drinking water or is it vandalism to put up a sign drawing attention to the fact that the dairy industry and their polluting lobby group Federated Farmers are driving the pollution of people's drinking water?"
Federated Farmers lodged a formal complaint with Charities Services in April and asked for the existing complaint to be acted upon decisively.
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