Monday 22 August 2011

Enough of this!

Please see below, from the Canadian Wolf Coalition, of which Animal Alliance is a part.
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As of mid June this year, wolves in the Cariboo Region of British Columbia have been exposed to even more threats:
Bag limits were removed so that hunters and trappers can kill as many wolves as they want and the hunting and trapping season was extended from 9.5 months to year-round.  This means that wolves can be killed in the summer months when their young are with them and their coats are not even used.  This type of killing is barbaric and senseless.  It must be stopped.  It can, if you will help by speaking out against it.  Demand the BC government stop this unnecessary killing.
Recent government cuts to the Predator Prevention and Compensation Program have lead to badly informed ranchers taking things into their own hands at perceived threats from wolves and other predators.  Insufficient government money has been invested in educating ranchers about responsible and predator-friendly husbandry practices, nor the importance of wolves ecologically.  Neither subsidies nor incentives have been provided (such as guardian dog grant programs, or rebates for electric fencing).   This is contrary the help ranchers receive when protecting crops from ungulates such as deer and elk feeding on them. 
It is within this same region, wildlife management unit five, that wolves are being experimentally sterilized and killed in government-hired trap-lines in the name of mountain caribou recovery.  This year, the government plans to kill fifteen wolves and sterilize another ten in a very small portion of region five called the Quesnell Highlands.  Everywhere surrounding is now OPEN SEASON UNFAIR GAME – BAITING IS ALLOWED AND WOLVES WITH PUPS CAN BE KILLED.  Apparently current decision makers do not know about the social bonds that wolf families share, nor that indiscriminate killing of wolves as a reaction to conflicts with livestock does NOT HELP the situation for livestock producers, as decades of wolf and coyote bounties across North America have proven.
HELP NOW!
Please let these officials know.  Send an e-mail to the following decision makers to tell them that their regulations for killing wolves are shameful and need to be improved.  In this Decade of Biodiversity wolves play an important role within ecosystems and should be protected and preserved in their most natural form.

SAMPLE LETTER : cut and paste.  ADD YOUR OWN COMMENTS and edit to make it personal and have more IMPACT!
The Honourable Steve Thomson, BC Minister of Forests, Lands and Natural Resources

The Honourable Terry Lake, BC Minister of Environment

The Honourable Don McRae, Minister of Agriculture and Lands

Dear Minister:
I am writing to let you know that I am against the recent decision to extend hunting seasons and remove bag limits for wolves in region five for the purposes of the livestock sector.  Killing wolves indiscriminately is not the solution!  This can lead to problems at the ecological level as well as continued conflicts with livestock and thus producers.  Funding is required for education about prevention of livestock-wildlife conflict and this needs to be a priority.  Please ensure that this goal of funding and education is undertaken as soon as possible.
Please stop the needless killing of wolves.  These animals are highly intelligent and social, and they have a right to live fearlessly in what portions of British Columbia and Canada remain wild enough to support them within an ecosystem.  In this Decade of Biodiversity please protect more habitat for wolves and other wildlife, and ensure that our province maintains large predators such as wolves as a part of our culture and natural heritage.  As resource extraction claims more nature each day, please ensure that protected wilderness areas are created large enough for several wolf packs to survive unthreatened by humans.
I also raise that you put an immediate end to the Wolf Sterilization and Removal Experiment in the name of mountain caribou recovery in this same region.  The war zone atmosphere you are creating for these animals is unnecessary and cruel.  I would hope that wildlife management in British Columbia would be more responsible, as what remains is precious from a global perspective.
Please let me know that you will update these practices to include moral principles and wildlife stewardship.
Sincerely,

--
Coordinator, Canadian Wolf Coalition

Friday 5 August 2011

Animal Lib

Our detractors often argue that we work to protect only the cute and cuddly animals.

Just for the record, today we liberated two adolescent cockroaches (who probably ran back inside the office through some crack in the building).  We live as gently as possible and do not draw the line at "vermin".  We are not speciesist.

If I sound a little jadded, it's because it has been that kind of week, with all kinds of calls from people wanting to give up cats, for a whole variety of reasons (all of which we've heard before).  I better stop before I rant.

Have a wonderful compassion-filled weekend, everyone!  I will do my best to extend my compassion to my fellow man.
Lia and the AAC crew