By Michael Smyth, The Province
On Jan. 15, helicopters lifted into the skies over British Columbia’s South Selkirk and South Peace regions to start the killing of up to 184 wolves. Photograph by: Marco Musiani file photo , CP
John Bergenske and Ian McAllister are two conservationists who care deeply about British Columbia’s threatened wildlife.
But when it comes to the government’s decision to shoot up to 184 wolves from helicopters to save endangered caribou herds, they find themselves at odds.
“Killing one species to save another simply doesn’t work,” said McAllister, a renowned wildlife photographer who started an online petition to stop the government’s wolf cull.
“It’s sickening to think our tax dollars are going to pay for this. It’s horrific for the wolves.”
Bergenske is sickened by it, too. He’s a devout vegetarian who hates the thought of any animal being killed by humans.
But he has also studied B.C.’s threatened woodland caribou for more than 20 years. He says southern interior wolf populations are expanding, and they’re feeding on caribou herds teetering on the brink of extinction.
“I go to bed every night and wake up every morning thinking about those wolves — it’s extremely sad,” Bergenske said.
“But if we don’t do this, we could lose the caribou forever.”
On Jan. 15, helicopters lifted into the skies over British Columbia’s South Selkirk and South Peace regions to start the killing.
The government is spending up to $575,000 on the operation to shoot and kill wolves from the air.
The goal: limit the wolves’ predation on dwindling interior caribou herds, the populations of which have crashed to critical levels.
Between 2009 and 2014, for example, the South Selkirk herd dropped from 46 to just 18 animals.
“There’s no question the most recently confirmed mortalities were caused by wolves,” said Bergenske, conservation director for the environmental group Wildsight.
“There were confirmed wolf tracks and wolf DNA. The caribou in the region had been staging a slow, steady recovery for a decade. Then wolves moved in and we saw a drastic drop in their numbers.
“If these wolves are not targeted, we could lose the remaining caribou and they would never return.”
McAllister agrees the caribou face a dire predicament.
But he disagrees that killing wolves is the way to save them.
“The fundamental threat to caribou is human encroachment and destruction of their habitat,” said McAllister, founder of the conservation group Pacific Wild.
“Killing every single wolf in this province will not save those caribou. But they’re killing wolves anyway. The wolves are being used as scapegoats.”
McAllister’s petition to stop the cull gathered nearly 140,000 online signatures in just a few days. And his Internet crowdfunding effort to raise money for caribou habitat protection and restoration raised $50,000 in just three days.
“It’s an unprecedented level of outrage on a wildlife issue — not just in British Columbia, but around the world,” he said.
McAllister also alleges the government is breaking its own animal-cruelty guidelines with the aerial wolf cull.
The B.C. government supports wild-animal-euthanasia guidelines recommended by the Canadian Council on Animal Care.
The guidelines call for killing methods that “reduce pain and distress to the greatest extent possible”. The guidelines say euthanasia by gunshot is best attempted when an animal is “immobilized or restrained” and warn a free-range gunshot “can result in accidental injury to the animal.”
But when it comes to the government’s decision to shoot up to 184 wolves from helicopters to save endangered caribou herds, they find themselves at odds.
“Killing one species to save another simply doesn’t work,” said McAllister, a renowned wildlife photographer who started an online petition to stop the government’s wolf cull.
“It’s sickening to think our tax dollars are going to pay for this. It’s horrific for the wolves.”
Bergenske is sickened by it, too. He’s a devout vegetarian who hates the thought of any animal being killed by humans.
But he has also studied B.C.’s threatened woodland caribou for more than 20 years. He says southern interior wolf populations are expanding, and they’re feeding on caribou herds teetering on the brink of extinction.
“I go to bed every night and wake up every morning thinking about those wolves — it’s extremely sad,” Bergenske said.
“But if we don’t do this, we could lose the caribou forever.”
On Jan. 15, helicopters lifted into the skies over British Columbia’s South Selkirk and South Peace regions to start the killing.
The government is spending up to $575,000 on the operation to shoot and kill wolves from the air.
The goal: limit the wolves’ predation on dwindling interior caribou herds, the populations of which have crashed to critical levels.
Between 2009 and 2014, for example, the South Selkirk herd dropped from 46 to just 18 animals.
“There’s no question the most recently confirmed mortalities were caused by wolves,” said Bergenske, conservation director for the environmental group Wildsight.
“There were confirmed wolf tracks and wolf DNA. The caribou in the region had been staging a slow, steady recovery for a decade. Then wolves moved in and we saw a drastic drop in their numbers.
“If these wolves are not targeted, we could lose the remaining caribou and they would never return.”
McAllister agrees the caribou face a dire predicament.
But he disagrees that killing wolves is the way to save them.
“The fundamental threat to caribou is human encroachment and destruction of their habitat,” said McAllister, founder of the conservation group Pacific Wild.
“Killing every single wolf in this province will not save those caribou. But they’re killing wolves anyway. The wolves are being used as scapegoats.”
McAllister’s petition to stop the cull gathered nearly 140,000 online signatures in just a few days. And his Internet crowdfunding effort to raise money for caribou habitat protection and restoration raised $50,000 in just three days.
“It’s an unprecedented level of outrage on a wildlife issue — not just in British Columbia, but around the world,” he said.
McAllister also alleges the government is breaking its own animal-cruelty guidelines with the aerial wolf cull.
The B.C. government supports wild-animal-euthanasia guidelines recommended by the Canadian Council on Animal Care.
The guidelines call for killing methods that “reduce pain and distress to the greatest extent possible”. The guidelines say euthanasia by gunshot is best attempted when an animal is “immobilized or restrained” and warn a free-range gunshot “can result in accidental injury to the animal.”
The
government says it will meet these standards by deploying “trained
sharpshooters” to ensure the wolves are humanely killed, not just
injured.
McAllister doesn’t buy it.
“There’s no way they can kill that many wolves without missing shots and injuring animals,” he said.
“You will have wounded wolves returning to ripped-apart family units. These are intelligent animals with strong social bonds and their suffering will be extreme.”
That’s an image Bergenske finds “haunting” and difficult to ponder. But he also believes a helicopter cull is the most effective way to humanely kill entire packs of wolves, so the animals are quickly dispatched and none are left orphaned.
“That way we can protect the caribou while habitat-protection measures are allowed to work,” he said. “Believe me — I don’t like to be a spokesperson for killing any animal. But we have to act for the long-term health of the ecosystem and all living things.”
In the meantime, the government refuses to say how many wolves have been killed so far. “They treat that number like a state secret,” said McAllister, who vows to increase pressure against the cull.
But the government shows no sign of backing down from the killing program, designed to save the remaining caribou herds from extinction and increase their numbers by 10 per cent.
If that’s achieved, the deaths of 184 wolves will be viewed as a logical sacrifice.
source
McAllister doesn’t buy it.
“There’s no way they can kill that many wolves without missing shots and injuring animals,” he said.
“You will have wounded wolves returning to ripped-apart family units. These are intelligent animals with strong social bonds and their suffering will be extreme.”
That’s an image Bergenske finds “haunting” and difficult to ponder. But he also believes a helicopter cull is the most effective way to humanely kill entire packs of wolves, so the animals are quickly dispatched and none are left orphaned.
“That way we can protect the caribou while habitat-protection measures are allowed to work,” he said. “Believe me — I don’t like to be a spokesperson for killing any animal. But we have to act for the long-term health of the ecosystem and all living things.”
In the meantime, the government refuses to say how many wolves have been killed so far. “They treat that number like a state secret,” said McAllister, who vows to increase pressure against the cull.
But the government shows no sign of backing down from the killing program, designed to save the remaining caribou herds from extinction and increase their numbers by 10 per cent.
If that’s achieved, the deaths of 184 wolves will be viewed as a logical sacrifice.
source
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