Political vandals leave charity with the bill

Stuff reports:

A Heart Foundation billboard depicting ‘NZ’s biggest killer’ has been defaced with a sketch of Prime Minister John Key.

The billboard aimed at raising awareness of heart disease as “New Zealand’s biggest killer” will now have to be taken down because the foundation can’t afford to replace it.

It was put up on Commerce St, in the Hamilton suburb of Frankton early last month, and yesterday a member of the public told the foundation the image of a man representing the disease as a “serial killer” had been blackened out and replaced with a sketch of Key’s face. 

Heart Foundation head of marketing Vanessa Winning said employees and volunteers were upset the billboard has been used for political protest. 

“It’s really disappointing that a charity is being targeted to score political points,” she said.

“I find it unthinkable that someone would vandalise our billboard, and consequently mock a seriously crippling disease, just to make a political statement.”

“This is an incredibly immature and callous act. 

“People are diagnosed with heart disease every day and have to live with the consequences. To think that such a personal and destructive topic is being used to score points is very sad.” 

Whoever defaced the billboard went to ” a lot of trouble” to measure and produce the image of Key, she said.

Winning said heart disease in New Zealand claimed more than one life every 90 minutes and many of those deaths were premature and preventable. 

“We work hard to stop the prevalence of heart disease in New Zealand and an act of vandalism like this is very discouraging,” she said. 

“We don’t have the money to waste on fixing vandalism of this nature. To rectify it saps precious money needed for our vital health programmes and research.

“Instead, we will have to take it down, as we can’t afford to replace it.” 

I hope the douche-bags responsible are proud of themselves.