Time to end wolf cull
Re: “How do you feel about the indiscriminate killing of wolves?”
That’s the title of a recent article bringing light to the plight of B.C.’s wolves. Just four years ago when Premier Horgan won election, he ended B.C.’s grizzly bear trophy hunt. It was to fulfill an election promise he had given to the people of B.C., because he knew from polling that public sentiment had shifted away from the wasteful, disrespectful attitudes of the past towards our wildlife.
Wolves, like grizzlies, are shot for trophies too, but that’s the very least of it. If you like shooting animals, you can shoot wolves without even purchasing a tag. Wolves are the only apex predator that a hunter doesn’t have to purchase a tag to shoot. Here on Vancouver Island, there is a ‘bag limit’ of three wolves for anyone with a basic hunting license. In other areas of the province, there isn’t even a bag limit, and any season is open season on wolves. Even cruel leg-hold traps and baited snares are allowed for killing wolves.
In addition to hunters and trappers, our own government has for years sponsored a ‘wolf cull’. They say it’s necessary to protect endangered mountain caribou, but it is now well known that wolves are simply scapegoats of the logging and mining companies that have decimated the caribou’s habitat, and their practices continue.
According to Pacific Wild, a B.C. conservation group, who by the way have an active petition with over 500,000 signatures to end the wolf cull, say the cull works like this: helicopters are used to spot the alpha males, which are then tranquilized, netted and fitted with a radio collar that can then be tracked back to the location of their pack. Once the pack’s location is known, aerial snipers shoot as many wolves in the pack as they can from the air. Then they access the dens on the ground and exterminate the rest of the pack. Millions of our tax dollars are being used to fund this.
Isn’t it time we stand up for wolves and give them the respect they deserve? They are beautiful animals, and a symbol of B.C.’s wilderness. They live in families like we do, and in character and personality, they aren’t that unlike your family dog.
Jacqueline Sherk
Lake Cowichan