There has been a continuing flood of reports of anguish over the declines in caribou across our continent, including a recent one claiming that the species is the “most endangered” in the lower 48 States, down to three animals. News reports indicate that the wildlife biologists who did an air survey of the animals, and the adjoining herd across the border in southern British Columbia, were “stunned” by the severity of the decline.
What did they expect? We hammer these animals every way possible and then blame other animals for the results. My colleague, Sadie Parr, Executive Director of Wolf Awareness, is justifiably complaining that all of us tax-paying Canadians are expected to pay to kill wildlife in order to make room for energy extraction, a move that I’m sure the Trump administration would applaud. At the same time, the province is spending “millions” to protect – yep – caribou.
Ironically, global climate change is increasingly recognized as degrading caribou habitat. The “jobs vis conservation” argument continues, with retired caribou biologist Michael Bloomfield’s excellent understanding of the situation being quite ignored by Alberta’s premier.
The criss-crossing of caribou habitat by roads, oil conduits, power lines, and so forth, as well as vegetation changes triggered by changing climate, not to mention sport, trophy, and meat hunting have all pressured these magnificent animals. Meanwhile, emerging from the shadow of public unawareness and official unpreparedness is the threat of Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD), which kills members of the deer family (and at least one species of primate, so could be a human threat), now spreading across the continent. Not caused by viruses or bacteria, there is no cure or vaccine.
So what to do? Kill still more. Kill, kill, kill is what we do best, in this case mostly wolves, and Alberta (and Saskatchewan) still use strychnine, a cruel poison that kills indiscriminately. The rest of the country avoids this poison, although the federal government is responsible for licensing it. At least 243 animals, including a grizzly bear, have thus suffered in a program that avoids the real issue – us humans, and our towering inability to curb our appetite for endless “growth” that stunts and destroys the natural functioning of increasingly abused ecosystems. That dozens of healthy deer and elk were killed to provide meat to be used for poison bait further demonstrates our inherently deadly nature. We can, must, do better.
Alberta saw no increase in caribou as a result of a decade of wolf killing, and so recently released a draft proposal for plans to kill still more species, essentially fencing off vast areas that contain caribou (a famously peripatetic species), in which more species, such as deer, elk, and moose, will also be killed. And, all of this in the interest of protecting the ability of dirty oil production to continue its contribution to climate change.
Keep Wildlife in the Wild,
Barry