The Conservation Minister has compared eating kereru to Maori eating moa into extinction 600 years ago.
Maggie Barry didn't stop there, also saying a marae in Ohakune may have served "roadkill" to visiting ministers, including Amy Adams, in 2013.
"When was the last time you ate roadkill? I mean why would you? It's just not what you do," she says.
Ms Adams, Nathan Guy and Tariana Turia were served the protected wood pigeon mixed with chicken and miro berries. It was a mark of respect from the marae.
The Department of Conservation (DOC) gave the dead kereru to the marae to use the bones and feathers, but not to eat the meat. The marae says that wasn't clear and believes it should have some rights to eat those birds as well.
"What next?" says Ms Barry. "Eat the kiwi? I don't think so. Maori ate moa as well. We don't want to eat birds to the brink of extinction; that is not appropriate."
Kereru have a tendency to get drunk in the sun on fermented berries and fall out of trees. But DOC doesn't know how the particular kereru on the ministerial menu were killed.
"These birds could have been roadkill, could have been poisoned, could have been shot," says Ms Barry. "The very idea that you would offer them up for human consumption beggars belief."
Kereru are protected, and killing them is illegal. Even eating the birds when they're found dead could mean jail time, not to mention extra risky when you don't know how they died.
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