BC government slaughtering wolves
This macabre wolf cull masks the obdurate refusal to acknowledge the ultimate cause of caribou declinis
………. The slaughter of wolves in Alberta is emblematic of an anachronistic and harmful wildlife management paradigm all too prevalent across Canada. It also reflects and is the result of our society’s choice to stay the course with the unsustainable industrial scale fossil fuel extraction that is the root cause of the Alberta wolf cull.
Mirroring Alberta, the the government of British Columbia has just announced a plan to kill close to 200 wolves in the South Selkirk and South Peace regions of the province to ostensibly “save caribou.” The B.C. cull will employ helicopter gunning of wolves, carried out before the snowmelt.
In an interview with The Tyee, Dr. Chris Darimont, Raincoast science director and Hakai-Raincoast professor in geography at the University of Victoria, said, “This is a last ditch, Hail Mary effort to save caribou that are on their way out not because of wolves, but because of development, and aggressive development, by humans in their habitat for a few decades now.” Citing research from the Alberta wolf cull, Darimont, a large carnivore expert, said the B.C. government’s “way of dealing with it will likely not work… these landscapes are not going to favour caribou again for a very long time. The damage that’s been done is greater than the ability of caribou to recover, even with aggressive intervention.”
The macabre exercises in futility represented by the Alberta and B.C. wolf culls mask the obdurate refusal to acknowledge the ultimate cause of caribou decline in both provinces. “Governments and the industries most accountable for the demise of Canada’s natural environment have perversely and consistently diverted responsibility and accountability to others, including grey wolves,” said Raincoast senior scientist Paul Paquet.
To read the full story please visit the Huffington Post
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/chris-genovali/wolf-cull
To write or email letters of opposition, direct these to BC Environment Minister Steve Thomson
steve [dot] thomson [dot] mla [at] leg [dot] bc [dot] ca
Also phone, write or email you MLA
MLA contact list www.leg.bc.ca/mla/
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