Radio New Zealand - Te Reo Irirangi o Aotearoa

Long-time 1080 protester Chris Short dies

Updated at 12:44 pm on 3 September 2010

A man who once hijacked a helicopter at gunpoint to protest against aerial drops of the poison 1080 has died of cancer.

Chris Short died on Tuesday at his Taupo home at the age of 51.

A keen hunter, Mr Short blamed his kidney cancer on his exposure to 1080, which is used by the Department of Conservation and other agencies to control possums.

Last August he staged a six-night vigil on Mount Tongariro, demanding that an anti-1080 documentary, Poisoning Paradise, be shown on television.

He served eight months of a two-year prison sentence for a 1995 incident in which he held a helicopter crew at gunpoint for five days on the mountain.

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