NGOs demand government prove its aerial wolf shooting is humane—and also condemn it as unethical and illogical.
more than 600 photos and 14 videos, believed to show wolves being shot from helicopters by marksmen using semi-automatic rifles, are stashed in provincial government files.
The photos are part of the province’s commitment to monitor its wolf cull program, but efforts by environmental and animal rights organizations to gain access to the photos are being stonewalled, despite freedom of information submissions by The Fur-Bearers and Pacific Wild.
Government insists that the controversial wolf cull—which began in 2015 in an effort to protect shrinking caribou herds—is ethical, humane and necessary if endangered caribou are to be saved.
But no audit of the program has been made public and critics say the photos must be released so British Columbians can judge for themselves if the killings are humane.
“The government maintains that its shooting activities are ethical and humane and that the kills are verified by the shooters and independently by a provincial veterinarian. Yet, at the same time, the public is being denied access to records that could verify or challenge such claims,” says an open letter from Pacific Wild sent this month to Minister of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship Nathan Cullen, Forests Minister Bruce Ralston and Premier David Eby.
The shootings have been carried out in a secretive manner with little oversight, says the letter from Pacific Wild.
“The withholding of pictures and videos of the wolf cull unnecessarily restricts the public’s ability to hold the government to account for the humaneness and ethical aspects of the wolf killings,” it says.
Secrecy and lack of oversight mark BC government’s wolf killing program
more than 600 photos and 14 videos, believed to show wolves being shot from helicopters by marksmen using semi-automatic rifles, are stashed in provincial government files.
The photos are part of the province’s commitment to monitor its wolf cull program, but efforts by environmental and animal rights organizations to gain access to the photos are being stonewalled, despite freedom of information submissions by The Fur-Bearers and Pacific Wild.
Government insists that the controversial wolf cull—which began in 2015 in an effort to protect shrinking caribou herds—is ethical, humane and necessary if endangered caribou are to be saved.
But no audit of the program has been made public and critics say the photos must be released so British Columbians can judge for themselves if the killings are humane.
“The government maintains that its shooting activities are ethical and humane and that the kills are verified by the shooters and independently by a provincial veterinarian. Yet, at the same time, the public is being denied access to records that could verify or challenge such claims,” says an open letter from Pacific Wild sent this month to Minister of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship Nathan Cullen, Forests Minister Bruce Ralston and Premier David Eby.
The shootings have been carried out in a secretive manner with little oversight, says the letter from Pacific Wild.
“The withholding of pictures and videos of the wolf cull unnecessarily restricts the public’s ability to hold the government to account for the humaneness and ethical aspects of the wolf killings,” it says.
Secrecy and lack of oversight mark BC government’s wolf killing program
