Wolf Awareness Inc. released a quote from a British Columbia government report leaked to them in which the authors, government, and academic scientists, acknowledge that a ‘humane’ cull isn’t possible. The quote was sent out as part of a news release, which The Fur-Bearers and 19 other non-profits co-signed.
“There are no humane methods to directly reduce wolf numbers,” reads the quote from the report, ‘Next steps for Southern Mountain Caribou recovery in planning Unit 3A, theRevelstoke Shuswap Region.’ “But aerial removal is the only method of killing enough wolves (and entire packs) to reduce wolf densities with no risk of by-catch.”
Aerial gunning is what it sounds like: using helicopters to chase and shoot at wolves. At least 200, and as many as 288 wolves have been killed through this program, in addition to snaring and ground shooting. As noted in the Wolf Awareness Inc. press release, “Aerial gunning fails to comply with ethical guidelines set by the Canadian Council on Animal Care, as it is not considered an acceptable form of euthanasia. The BC government also accepts strangling snares as a killing method in this and other management plans.”
In addition to being inherently inhumane, culling has not assisted the caribou herds in British Columbia or in Alberta, whose major threat is not essential wildlife, but habitat fragmentation and degradation through resource exploitation. Plans such as culls, fencing in caribous, and setting aside parcels of land inappropriate for caribou, have shown ineffective through scientific review.
The Fur-Bearers are strong proponents of ending culls and looking at the peer-reviewed science – not the politically-motivated policy – for solutions to protecting all wildlife in ecosystems. We encourage all our supporters to follow this link and join thousands of Canadians opposing the British Columbia (and Alberta) government’s plans to continuing culling, even in the face of an internal report that admits to it being inhumane.
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