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The Big Bad Wolf – How YOU Can Help

Hi everyone, this will be the first in a series of blog posts leading up to December 5th, which just happens to be the deadline for submitting comments to the BC government regarding its Draft Management Plan for the Grey Wolf in British Columbia.

As many of you already know, I’ve put my heart on my sleeve of late and come out strongly against the men and women hiding behind their guns up north in the Peace region. Their barbaric wolf kill contest has now garnered national attention, and my call for a boycott of the Alaska Highway by wolf lovers has people from around the world stepping up in support of the wolves of British Columbia.

Through this last week, some of the people up north have been interesting, to say the least. They’ve continuously shackled themselves with comments in the newspapers, on the radio, and on the internet that has made many of them look like they’re stuck in a time warp, afraid to embrace modern values towards wildlife and tourism.

I’ve asked them repeatedly for science to back up their claims of “too many wolves” and they’ve come up with nothing. They’ve ignored my calls for data showing something/anything (!!) about increased wolf predation on livestock (read the Vancouver Sun article from October 9th, Livestock Stats Don’t Justify Wolf Cull, for an eye-opener on that bogus claim). And perhaps worst of all, the men behind the contest have shriveled up under the spotlight and disappeared. Completely. Hoping, I’m sure, that us “tree-huggers” and “radicals” will go back to our cities and southern towns and let them keep masquerading about as conservationists. Unfortunately for them, the time has come to step up and make our voices heard across the province and across Canada.

So just how bad is this Draft Management Plan for the Grey Wolf in British Columbia (60 page pdf)? Rather than listening to me on this one, I’m going to give center stage over to some of Canada’s most prominent wolf researchers: BC Wolf Management Plan criticized as veiled attack on the species (Vancouver Sun, November 16th) and to a friend and colleague in the world of professional wildlife photographers, Brad Hill, a biologist living in the heart of wolf country in the Kootenays in British Columbia.  Brad has crafted up two fantastic blog entries in the past week outlining exactly what is wrong with what he calls BC’s Draft Murder Plan for the Grey Wolf (read his November 21st entry down the page, as well as his November 29th entry at the top).

It takes just a few minutes, but if you read Brad’s comments and the Sun articles, you can then go directly to the British Columbia government’s feedback form and submit your comments on what you think about BC’s proposal to have aerial wolf culls in the province, among other draconian measures, as part of their murder plan for grey wolves.

It’s time we put an end to wolf culls (for now — I’ll have more about this on Monday’s blog post), wolf killing contests, and the myth of the Big Bad Wolf.

After all, would YOU shoot this?  Then why are we letting anyone else do it without some science to back up their claims?

The Big Bad Wolf?  Hardly, not a single person has ever been killed in BC by a wolf.

Thank you everyone, I greatly appreciate your help and support in this urgent matter.  Please help spread this across Facebook and Twitter and the web as quickly as possible.

Sincerely,

John

9 Comments on “The Big Bad Wolf – How YOU Can Help

Mikey
November 30, 2012 at 9:10 pm

Yes I would shoot that wolf, But with a camera and lens to capture the wonderful moment nature has bestowed before my eyes.

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Anonymous
November 30, 2012 at 11:53 pm

Thank you for using your talent to show the beauty of wolves and to protect them from being killed! This draft management plan is ridiculous. Keep up the great work!

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Anonymous
December 1, 2012 at 12:57 am

I second that comment! Keep it up. I stumbled across your blog because of the wolf kill contest, a disgusting inhumane event if I ever heard of one. And arial hunting? It amazes me to no end that humans thing they are in any way superior, while they behave like barbarians. Thanks for bringing the world's attention to this atrocity against nature. I will share with my friends, and have submitted comments regarding the wold 'management' plan.

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Ron Robertson
December 1, 2012 at 3:24 am

John,

I couldn't agree more with banning any planned wolf culls. I submitted the following comments on the B.C. wolf management plan:

This "management plan" is without doubt one of the most knee jerk, reactionary pieces of garbage that I have seen. It is clearly the intention of the Province of B.C. to exterminate the Provincial wolf population to please a few cattle ranchers who shouldn't be raising cattle in the areas they are in! This is an absolute disgrace and certainly cannot be considered wildlife management! It is well known how the cattlemen in the province have overinflated (insert "LIED") about their losses of cattle to wolves. Has anyone in the ministry obtained statistics from insurance companies about the number of claims made for cattle lost to wolves and other predators? Surely there must be 10's of thousands of claims if the numbers of cattle being killed by wolves are as high as ranchers claim!

Doesn't it make more sense to ban free roaming cattle from all crown lands? Ranchers are encroaching in areas that were never natural habitats for cattle. They were however natural habitats for wolves and the many cloven hoofed mammals they prey on. Perhaps legislation to mandate that cattle ranchers install predator proof fences around grazing lands would be the answer! After all that would be a legitimate business expense for these ranchers and would end the problem of cattle being lost to wolves wouldn't it? There certainly are better options available for wildlife management. Maybe a domestic livestock management plan where livestock are banned from large areas of natural wolf habitat would be a solution?

Wolf populations, as with any other predator, decline when food sources run low and increase when prey is plentiful. That is nature. The best wildlife management plan is to leave the predator populations alone. I have read how many hunters in B.C. claim that deer and moose populations are down and blame it on wolves. Have there been any provincial studies to show how many thousands of deer and moose are killed every year because of careless drivers on the highways causing those populations to diminish which could in part be a reason that wolves might turn to prey like the occasional cow?

As a businessman and wildlife photographer, I enjoy traveling to locations where there is an abundance of wildlife to view and photograph, B.C. being one of those locations. It isn't unusual to spend thousands of dollars at local businesses when I travel whether it is in B.C. or elsewhere to view and photograph wildlife. This type of management plan to exterminate the wolf population in B.C. will certainly cause me to take my tourism dollars to places other than B.C.

R. Robertson
Leduc, AB

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Colette
December 1, 2012 at 5:19 am

thank you for your passion and comments…I fully agree and support you anf those that are as passionate about wolves and legitimate wildlife conservation.

I do hope that the BC Government will listen…I wrote a letter too, to the the BC government earier this week. With a degree in Ecology, I am absolutely dumb founded, saddened, and angered at the continual ignorance and unscientific reasoning behind such autrocious acts of violence. It is so devestating that humans cannot learn from their past. There is so much scientific evidence contradicting this plan and yet the government and the "supporter" of this mass murder still find there way on top. I hope that the government will see their wrong in this and do the right thing…and that is to stop this now.

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Carl Hanninen
December 3, 2012 at 4:25 am

Good work, John.
I posted this information on my blog along with a link to your blog posts. Hope this alerts more people to what's going on.
Good luck, Carl.

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Anonymous
December 5, 2012 at 12:20 am

Hello John and thank you for your article. I live in the north and am a strong advocate of the wolf. I have lived here for 8 years and have spent a considerable time outback trekking, enjoying and observing. I have followed a lone wolf's tracks that at times were instep with a grizzly and wondered where were all the wolves. For 8 years, the most I saw were two sets of tracks but mostly one. I am happy to say that for the first time I have seen evidence of a pack. Finally. People are big on hunting ungulates and I think that might be a motivator for the complaints.

Just for the record and you can check it out but with all the whining and complaining of caribou populations in the Peace, they still have a hunting season albeit bow hunting, but hunting nonetheless. It is my suggestion to them that perhaps if they left some ungulates, the wolves wouldn't have to eat their cattle.

regards
jan

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Deb Odland
December 17, 2012 at 12:13 am

My name is Harry and I am 82 years old. I have been an ethical hunter and avid outdoors man for over 70 years! This "Kill the wolf contest" is silly and unnecessary. The wolves have their place in the whole scheme of Nature and the natural order of life. There is no bird or animal that lives that does not have its spot in the universe. Killing the young and killing the old is not what should be happening out there in this day and age! The average "hunter" would not go out and just kill a wolf. In all my years of hunting, I have only seen a handful of wolfs and thought to my self … it is great to see them in the wild! I certainly hope that my comments help you to make the right decision.

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Anonymous
December 17, 2012 at 12:14 am

Its a scare that has been drilled into the humans ( not humane ) that WOLVES
kill for the sake of killing. It is ridiculous and more shocking that WOLVES are killed / shot by humans . Are we degenerating into the times of KILL for FUN ??
SAVE the WOLVES !!!!!

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