Stop the execution of Siberian wolves

03 July, 2014

 

Apologies! Here is the link to sign the SIBERIAN WOLF PETITION:

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/440/858/869/stop-the-slaughter-of-3000-wolves-in-siberia/

There is also a second petition to sign as wolves are being targeted worldwide

Petitioning To the Parliament of Latvia

Stop killing wolf pups and shorten wolf hunting season in Latvia

Petition by: Mareks Vilkins; Valmiera, Latvia

Latvia is the only European country where hunters kill not only local wolves but also those who are coming in from Estonia, Russia, Belarus and Lithuania.

The wolf hunting season in Latvia goes on for almost 9 months (July 15 – March 31) and hunters are killing 2 months old pups and pregnant wolf females.

The killing of wolf pups was a dominant feature of the last wolf hunting season – from July 15 till October 5 hunters killed 113 wolves and 74 of them were pups (in whole season 292 wolves were killed).

Management goal is to have 200-300 wolves after the hunting season is closed in April. That goal can be secured only thanks to incoming wolves from neighbouring countries like Estonia, Russia and Lithuania where wolf hunting is less intensive.

Right now 70% of adult wolf females are breeding every year (6 pups per litter) – so the policy basically comes to this:

1)   make local wolves to become breeding machines and then
2)   kill every single wolf within 5…6 years time.

One can compare this breeding rate with wolf population which is not harvested – for example, in Poland there’s a ban on wolf hunting since 1998 and now they have only 700 wolves but in Yellowstone NP in 2008 were living 124 wolves and they had only 6 breeding pairs.

Livestock depredation in Latvia is small and usually happens to the same owners due to negligence:

2005 – 9 sheep, 5 goats, 6 cattle
2008 – 39 sheep, 6 goats
2011 – 242 (of them 176 sheep)
2012 – 170 (of them 163 sheep)
Oct 1, 2013  – 174 (of them 152 sheep)

In order to stop wolf pup and pregnant female killing it is necessary to shorten wolf hunting season from October till January and wolf quota should be applied only to wolves who have repeatedly attacked livestock.

It is unacceptable that extreme hunting pressure is applied to protected species in the 21st century and must be stopped.

For more information and to sign this petition go to:

https://www.change.org/petitions/to-the-parliament-of-latvia-stop-killing-wolf-pups-and-shorten-wolf-hunting-season-in-latvia

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