URGENT! Alberta has proposed creating a caribou zoo and killing wolves for the next 50 years!
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Wolf Awareness in the NEWS
BREAKING! JOINT RELEASE:
Alberta's draft caribou protection plan criticized for protecting industrial development at the expense of wildlife
A diverse group of experts speak up against the use of killing snares
Globe and Mail, March 2016
Animal protection groups align with conservation organizations to condemn reckless proposal to slaughter wolves and coyotes.
Jan 22, 2016
The Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry has proposed a plan to increase killing of wolves and the unlimited killing of coyotes across most of Ontario in a poorly conceived, ill-informed effort purporting to enhance moose populations.
Saving Wolves With Compassionate Conservation: The Killing Must Stop - Marc Bekoff and Sadie Parr
October 12th, 2015
North Americans are often quick to condemn the brutality of other cultures and countries, inserting ourselves, sometimes using violent force, to establish what we consider peace keeping and a “good life”. Why then, has this sense of empathy not reached the way that we treat and care for other magnificent and fascinating species with whom we share the North American landscape?
The Wolf Cull is Coming and Opposition is Rising
September 24, 2015
Wolf Awareness Inc has erected a billboard on the TransCanada Highway to bring exposure to BCs lackadaisical hunting and trapping regulations.
Alberta Must Call a Truce on Wolves
Sadie Parr & Chris Genovali
August 14, 2015
More than 800 wolves in the Little Smoky Area of northern Alberta were strangled by snares, gunned down by helicopters and poisoned with strychnine over 7 years.
Wolf Advocates Stymied in Search for Cull Details
The Tyee
July 2015
Critics of the B.C. government's wolf cull say they've been stymied in their attempts to get detailed information about last winter's killing of 84 animals.
Check out the most current issue of our quarterly newsletter HOWLINGS
here
THE NEED
"Ironically, the species once regarded as a threat to our survival is turning out to be a test of how likely we are to achieve sustainability & coexistence with the elements that sustain us .”
(Paul Paquet & Ludwig Carbyn - 2003)
Wolf Awareness Inc. is a non-profit organization dedicated to developing positive attitudes towards predators in general, the wolf in particular, and an appreciation of the environment of which all of us are a part.
We are committed to wolf conservation through research and public education regarding the ecology of the gray wolf, Canis lupus. WAI has worked closely with wolf research projects across Canada, receiving the most up-to-date information about studies while providing donated funds to support research that has improved our understanding of this extremely intelligent and social large carnivore.
URGENT!!!! Wolves in Western Canada need YOUR help!
Wolves in Canada are running out of places to hide. In Alberta, a gruesome wolf kill program has been underway in the areas of the Little Smokey and A La Peche caribou herds since 2005, mounting a death toll over a decade. In January of 2015, the provincial BC government announced plans to kill up to 184 wolves living in British Columbia before the snow melted. Though they were only successful at killing 84 wolves the first season, they plan to continue the wolf killing program for a minimum of 5 years under the guise of helping to recover dwindling caribou herds in the South Selkirk and South Peace areas. In both provinces, wolves are chased by helicopters until they are exhausted, and then shot...who knows how many times...
READ, COPY and SHARE OUR 2016 ACTION ALERT! Click HERE
A sad reality is that caribou are in this situation because of us, not because of wolves. The province has knowingly allowed industry to destroy caribou habitat for 50 years. Activities such as energy development, logging, mining and high-impact recreation continue in critical caribou habitat. As a consequence of our neglect, the government has sanctioned the killing of one species to save another.
Learn more about the development of this conservation dilema on our Caribou timeline.
In recent decades we have learned more about the true nature of wolves as emotional and intelligent beings, and just how important they are in maintaining balance and biodiversity . So why has BC has just announced a new death sentence for wolves?
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FACT: Wolves are emotional and intelligent beings whose predation on caribou is facilitated by habitat destruction.
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FACT: Wolves are a keystone species, capable of causing trophic cascades that increases biodiversity and facilitates large-scale processes in our wilderness ecosystems.
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FACT: A death sentence for wolves will not save endangered caribou.
We the public deserve to be informed on how our tax dollars are being spent, to what end, and for how long.
We deserve to know how the country's iconic wildlife and wild places are being cared for. These are part of a public trust.
We deserve to have our input listened to and considered.
The decision to kill more wolves is scientifically unsound. All evidence to date shows that killing wolves does not reduce predator numbers for more than a season since their behaviour allows populations to rebound quickly and fill in the vacant space created where resident wolves have been killed. No wonder this outdated management practice has consistently failed to increase ungulate populations long-term. This is not the first time wolf helicopter killing and sterilization has occurred in B.C. nor Alberta. However, with your voice, we can work to ensure it is the last.
READ media coverage Ecologists Oppose BC Wolf Cull.
WATCH John E. Marriott discuss Canada's War on Wolves in this episode of "Exposed"
There are major ecological repercussions when wolves are hunted. Ripple effects throughout the ecosystem are detrimental to the behaviour and diversity of many other species and natural processes. Watch this video and learn more about the critical ecological role of wolves as a keystone species.
This is also a question of animal welfare. The morality of causing harm to hundreds of intelligent and sensitive animals for any reason should be questioned. Are we prepared to spend the next several decades shooting wolves from helicopters in a vain attempt to maintain small herds of caribou in degraded habitat? Areas that have been protected for caribou, such as in the South Selkirk region, are not only small, but they are isolated. Small, isolated populations of caribou will likely be wiped out by disease outbreak, natural disasters or hard winters whether or not every wolf family in the area is scapegoated and murdered. Read this article by Raincoast Conservation Foundation about "Alberta's slaughter of more than 1,000 wolves and hundreds of other animals." Read WAI's joint article with Raincoast titled "Alberta Must Call a Truce on Wolves"
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FACT: Aerial shooting is not an approved method under Canada's current guidelines on Approved Animal Care.
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FACT: The war on wolves is playing itself out in Alberta and demands just as much attention and participation.
More than 800 wolves have been killed under the guise of protecting Alberta's Little Smokey Caribou herd in habitat 95% disturbed by oil and gas infrastructure. Wolves were killed in strangling snares, gunned down from helicopters and poisoned using elk and moose killed and laced with strychnine. Indiscriminate weapons, snares killed 676 other animals, including 2 caribou. There is no way to estimate how many non-target animals died of strychnine poisoning.
Read this article by Marc Beckoff about compassionate conservation titled "Killing 890 Wolves to Learn About Them: Something's Wrong". The original "experiment" that killed so many Albertan animals can be read HERE.
The caribou recovery plan is not built on an understanding of wolf ecology or conservation ethics. Instead, an apparent pre-determined agenda which encourages killing wolves has been exposed. In addition to opposing the destruction of wolves in a last ditch effort to save caribou, we stress the importance of instituting effective conservation measures to preserve old-growth habitat critical to the survival of caribou. To win this battle, industrial encroachment must be halted and habitat allowed to regenerate.
BC will be killing wolves more "efficiently" this winter with the help of GPS collars and fixed wing track spotters...killing more wolves faster will NOT help caribou habitat regenerate quicker, will NOT ease the suffering of the individual wolves and their families as they are gunned down, will NOT escape the ecological consequences of exploiting this important keystone species.
Please become informed and involved. This is a defining time for the values of Canadians.
Contacting your local MLA and asking them to raise the issue at the provincial level is one of the best ways to provoke change.
Below are listed other relevant contacts for specific provinces:
BRITISH COLUMBIA: ** click HERE to locate your MLA
The Honourable Christy Clark
BC Premier
PO Box 9041, Stn Prov Govt
Victoria, BC V8W 9E1
The Honourable Steve Thomson
Minister of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations
PO Box 9049, Stn Prov Govt
Victoria, BC V8W 9E2
The Honourable Shirley Bond
Minister of Jobs, TOURISM, and Skills Training
PO Box 9071
STN PROV GOV
Victoria, BC
V8W 9E2
cc:
NDP FLNR Critic and Harry Baines
Green Party Leader Andrew Weaver
ALBERTA ***click HERE to find your MLA
The Honourable Rachel Notley, Premier
Executive Branch
307 Legislature Building
10800 - 97 Avenue
Edmonton, AB T5K 2B6
Phone: 780 427-2251
Fax: 780 427-1349
premier@gov.ab.ca
The Honourable Shannon Phillips, Minister
Alberta Environment and Parks
Main Floor, Great West Life Building
9920 108 Street
Edmonton, AB T5K 2M4
Phone: 877 944-0313
Fax: 780 427-4407
Alberta Culture and Tourism
Honourable David Eggen
Room 228, Legislative Building
10800 97 Avenue
Edmonton, AB T5K 2B6
Phone: 780-422-3559
Fax: 780-427-5018
Culturetourism.Minister@gov.ab.ca
Images courtesy Peter A Dettling - www.TerraMagica.ca
Help ensure that Canadian wolves can remain wild and free to roam undisturbed.
For now, and for the generations after us.
If we expect MORE we have the chance of getting something better.
Let Us Take Action;
Collectively & Individually.
Join us in the
Check out this short video by River Voices, describing part of the work we do at Wolf Awareness and why. Click on the video to play.
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