A wolf-kill contest sponsored by local
businesses has provoked outrage in the provincial media and has lead to a
steady stream of angry letters to the Alaska Highway News from
concerned citizens.
Richard Petersen, a resident of Fort
St. John, has become a target of public scorn after comments he made in
defense of the contest in a provincial newspaper.
“It’s not a contest to exterminate
wolves, not an organized thing where we go out and shoot every wolf in
the country. If you are driving down the road and see one and you happen
to shoot it and you’re in this contest, you have a chance to win
something,” Petersen said in the news article.
The contest is $50 to enter. At the end
of the contest, on May 31, the winners will receive prizes ranging
between $250 to upwards of $1,000, it has been reported.
The article said that winners are
determined by the size of their kill. There is also a booby prize of
$150 for the smallest wolf. Other prizes include free taxidermy work and
rifles. Each contestant is allowed to submit three wolves for
evaluation.
John Marriot, an accomplished nature
photographer based in Canmore, Alta. has used his popular photography
blog to urge a tourism boycott of the Alaska Highway until the contest
is stopped.
In response, The Alaska Highway News
has received many letters from British Columbians angered by the
wolf-kill contest and, in particular, Petersen’s description of himself
as a wildlife conservationist.
“Giving a prize for killing the
smallest wolf, which would generally be a pup or youngster, leaves me
entirely speechless,” wrote Catherine E. Fox, barrister and solicitor,
in an email.
“I cannot believe that this is being
done in this province,” wrote Patricia Watson from Lions Bay, B.C. “In
protest I will boycott all travel along the Alaska Highway and any
businesses that support such an action.”
"Sponsoring a contest under the ReMax
banner that promotes the indiscriminate killing of wolves and offering
prizes for the biggest and the smallest animal killed is absolutely
disgraceful!" wrote Ron Robertson from Leduc, Alta.
Petersen would not comment.
A representative, who prefers to remain
nameless, from the North Peace Rod and Gun Club, a group which also
sponsored the event, said that regardless of the bad press the contest
is going ahead as scheduled.
“You need to have permission to hunt on
someone’s land and hunting regulations mean you can’t just pop off the
highway and shoot… you have to be at least a kilometre away from the
highway… it’s not like it’s a shoot fest,” said the gun club
representative.
According to Kevin Boon, general
manager of the British Columbia Cattlemen’s Association, ranchers are
losing 10 to 25 per cent of their cattle to wolf predation.
“We have to start a process of getting
rid of some of them to bring the population back to a point where we can
coexist,” he told the Alaska Highway News in an earlier interview.
“There isn’t a cattleman out there who
doesn’t expect to lose some to them, it’s just they can afford the loss
of what they are losing.”
A provincial Ministry of Agriculture
report shows that $63,800 in compensation payments were paid out last to
year to provincial ranchers who lost a total of 133 head of cattle.
“My guess is that many people have no
idea the effect that these wolves have on people’s livelihoods up here,”
said Blair Lekstrom, MLA for Peace River South.
“I think the issue here that people are
concerned about is the use of the word ‘contest’ but there is no doubt
in my mind that we have to take some of the wolves out. I’ve talked with
some ranchers who’ve lost 10 per cent of their herd to wolves,” said
Lekstrom.
“There’s not a huge margin and profit
as far as the cattle industry goes. These people aren’t in it for the
dollars. It’s a way of life but they also can’t go broke doing it
supplying the food that we all need,” said Lekstrom.
According to the government’s recently
released Management Plan for the Grey Wolf the population of grey wolves
in the province is relatively stable, rising from about 8,100 to 8,500
in the past twenty years.
However, they are having an effect on
local wildlife. Experts believe wolves accounts for about 75 per cent of
adult mortality among caribou in the South Peace.
“I do believe it [the contest] was well intentioned in order to take the number of wolves down somewhat,” said Lekstrom.
As co-owner and the retired manager of
the Fort St. John Re/Max Action Realty, some of the criticism of Richard
Petersen has been directed to that local business.
“It’s not affiliated with Re/Max or the
City of Fort St. John. It’s a private contest with sponsors that needs
to be governed or regulated by the province or fed,” said Trevor Bolin,
the realty company’s current Fort St. John branch manager and co-owner.
“Part of the problem is this is
something that is not illegal. For them to either personally attack Rich
or the Re/Max brand because of his affiliation is wrong … This all got
started by people who have no idea about the impact of a large wolf
population,” said Bolin, who in addition to his day job also serves a
city councillor.
He noted that there is not much of a
difference between this contest and other popular worldwide shooting
competitions, such as hunting for big buck.
“I’ve definitely fielded a whack of
emails and phone calls. I definitely understand that people outside of
this area have a problem, with it but if you talk to a farmer or hunter,
you’re going to hear a different story than what you hear in
Vancouver,” said Bolin, who added that he is not a hunter.
The wolf management plan included many
techniques to reduce the population of wolves in B.C., including
shooting them from a helicopter, increasing the length of hunting and
trapping seasons and increasing an individual hunter’s bag limit.
“It sounds like a really backwards,
naïve solution” said Kai Chan, a Canada Research Chair and associate
professor at UBC’s Institute for Resource, Environment and
Sustainability said about the contest. He noted that in many other
regions the practice of indiscriminately killing large carnivores to
control their population has not worked.
“This is because of wolf population
biology,” said Chan, “One of the dangers of shooting the wolves is
splintering the pack which can lead to more problems such as renegade
wolves.”
Chan said that in some regions,
insurance schemes that minimize the economic risk for ranchers and
farmers of losing their livestock have played a role in reducing the
number of ranchers who kill predators. He noted that this strategy has
worked particularly well in India and resulted in fewer tigers being
killed by ranchers.
He also said that there are other more humane and more effective ways for ranchers to manage wolves in a non-lethal way.
“In Idaho they’ve had a 90 per cent
decline in wolf problems. By using behavioural conditions – loud noises –
to scare the wolves away. The idea is that wolves are smart and they
are afraid of people. Ranchers can use that to their advantage,” said
Chan.
Chris Genovali, executive director at
Raincoast Conservation Foundation, says that humans and not the wolves
at are at fault for the loss of caribou.
“How we humans are altering the
landscape is really the ultimate cause of caribou decline. Whether it’s
through logging, building roads and fencing habitat, humans are creating
a landscape where it is easier for wolves to predate on caribou. In
many areas its not just wolves that are preying on caribou. It’s also
cougars, grizzly bears and black bears,” said Genovali.
Genovali said that the province’s new
wolf management plan encourages hunters in different regions to kill
more wolves, and that wolves are highly complex, highly social,
intelligent and sensitive animals that live in family groups.
“I think that when your policy is to
kill more wolves, the natural outgrowth of that will be the prize or the
wolf-killing derby type of situation.”
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