What is this, the 19th century?
You'd think we would've learned by now that wiping out a species because it's a nuisance to man's way of life only brings up serious problems down the road caused by ecological imbalance.
Canada is once again in environmentalists' bad books with B.C.'s announcement this week there's no longer a limit on hunting wolves in the 100 Mile House, Williams Lake, Quesnel and Chilcotin region - this includes females and their suckling pups.
This policy diminishes the wolf - an animal men have admired, feared and honoured for thousands of years - to mere vermin.
This is the genius solution to anecdotal reports claiming wolves are preying on ranch livestock.
Yes, you read right, the information was purely word-of-mouth - the Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations couldn't even point to a study proving such a problem, nor can they prove the drastic solution would help.
And to make matters worse, the province's Conservation Officer Service, which was historically tasked with protecting people from wildlife encounters, is now told it must protect ranchers' livestock. So they must now view animals preying on cattle as pests.
And conveniently, the ministry claims its biologists have determined the Cariboo wolf population is "more than able to sustain these new hunting and trapping opportunities."
But unsurprisingly, independent B.C. coast biologists disagree, calling the approach irresponsible.
One biologist calls the wolf kill "politically-inspired seat-of-the-pants management."
They say indiscriminately killing wolves can lead to worse livestock kills since it interferes with pack dynamics, breaks down territories and creates the type of desperation that leads wolves to prey on cattle to begin with.
Even wolf trappers are unhappy about the situation, claiming summertime kills means pelts lose all value. Besides, said the South Cariboo Trappers Association president, "Taking wolves while their pups in the den seems wrong."
Yeah, wrong in a Cruella de Vil kind of way.
There's got to be some serious gaps in a policy when both animal rights activists and trappers are on the same page.
Obviously, more consultation should have taken place before this lawlessness was rammed through.
Biologists, trappers, animal rights activists and even some ranchers say there are much better ways of handling the livestock loss than the archaic approach being used today.
Hopefully the province will see the error of their ways before it's too late and come up with a solution that benefits the environmental and economic bottom-line, not just the political one.
-- Prince George Citizen
