Mad Butcher backs campaign
Despite a court ruling which effectively went against them, the Friends of Marineland have not stepped back in their campaign to have the closed venue re-opened as a wildlife education centre and sanctuary.
They also have a high-profile supporter still prepared to support their pursuit, in the form of Sir Peter Leitch, aka ``The Mad Butcher'', who has donated a signed Warriors jersey and a signed copy of his biography as part of the funding drive for the group to ``keep up the fight'', its co-ordinator Emily Otto said.
She said Sir Peter was happy to provide the items, which were now the centre of an auction the group were running via Trade Me.
He was also happy to step back from collecting a prize he won in the group's second major raffle.
``He'd bought some tickets simply as a donation,'' Mrs Otto said.
When the raffle was drawn, under police supervision in Napier, it transpired that Sir Peter's name emerged as the winner of a ``munchies and movies'' prize of chocolates, pizza and movie passes.
``I said to the police officer present that I better ring Sir Peter to see what he wanted to do.''
She did, and he cheerfully declared that no, he would not accept it, and agreed for it to be re-drawn and given to someone else.
Mrs Otto said all 3000 tickets had been easy to sell. At the same time as selling tickets, sellers had provided support forms for people to sign and leave comments on.
``Our goal is to collect thousands of these to show the Napier City Council that people still care about Marineland and what happens to it.''-->
