THE USA should be ashamed of themselves if they fail to follow Ontarios Example!
The Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry has announced a hunting and trapping ban on wolves and coyotes across 40 townships, effective immediately.
Said to be a step towards protecting Ontario wolves, specifically the recently re-named Algonquin wolf, hunters and trappers will be banned from hunting or trapping wolves and coyotes in three additional districts:
The area of Kawartha Highlands Provincial Park, which includes the geographic townships of: Anstruther, Burleigh, Cardiff, Cavendish, Chandos, Harvey, and Monmouth;
The area of Queen Elizabeth II Wildlands Provincial Park, which includes the geographic townships of: Anson, Dalton, Digby, Longford, Lutterworth, Minden, and Ryde;
The area of Killarney Provincial Park, which includes the geographic townships of: Allen, Attlee, Bevin, Burwash, Caen, Carlyle, Cox, Curtin, Dieppe, Eden, Foster, Goschen, Halifax, Hansen, Humboldt, Killarney, Kilpatrick, Laura, Roosevelt, Sale, Secord, Servos, Struthers, Tilton, Truman, and Waldie.
Click here for a map of the expanded wolf and coyote hunting and trapping ban.
Farmers and ranchers, especially those with sheep and cattle, have expressed disapproval of coyotes being included in the ban, and would prefer education and training of hunters and trappers to distinguish between the species. Predation of livestock by wolves does occur, however, coyote kills are exponentially higher.A spokesperson for the provincial government stated that because wolves and coyotes are difficult to distinguish from each other, the restriction on hunting and trapping must apply to both species. The ruling was made following a 31-day comment period held over this summer. Over 4,000 comments were received, most of them against the restrictions as laid out by the provincial government — many because of the increased threat to livestock and other prey of the wolf and coyote. (You can read some of the comments by clicking here.)
Read more on the regulation change here
Farmers and landowners within the designated areas may still “kill, harm, or harass an Algonquin (Eastern) Wolf or coyote in incidents of risks to health and safety, including the protection of domestic and livestock animals,” according to the province.For the year ending March, 2016, farmers and ranchers claimed nearly $1.7 million in death and injuries due to predators. Of those deaths, the majority of sheep kills were attributed to coyote deaths. For the Kawartha region alone, coyote attacks were responsible for 53 cattle deaths.
Source: Ontario Bans Coyote Trapping & Hunting in 40 Municipalities – Real Agriculture
Comments
Hmmm. THe science on Algonquian Park and other Ontario parks were first to show the Yellowstone problem of “step-outa-line- and-die” that has killed even more wolves and ruined NE Denali NP than YNP.
Sothis is good news – scientists have been calling for buffers for decades.
A note: it seems that European farmers and politicians are taking notes from the cattlemen of the US west. Lately I’ve checked and found the excuses for lethal “control” to be almost verbatim when translated. The numbers they want to kill are the same as benighted ID and other US states.
Even though repeated considerable warnings by population biologists on killing 25-40% will result in only uneducated young wolves, who choose the easiest prey – domestic, never learning from their parents how to get their natural culls from wild populations, Over and over, we see that not only ecological, behavioral, and economic arguments go unheard due to the ease of distant lead injection, but also see that the worst of all possible cultural immoralities is being preserved. I’ve already said that the mountain west has about 2% of all cattle industry (most is over in the corn Mississippi valley states).
Children Ive heard in the west parrot their parents’ kill-is-the-answer religion. I don’t know how much longer this kind of culture can be allowed to exist.
The USA by the way, manages to export some beef, but brazil, Argentina, all have much cheaper prices. It mostly goes to east Asia. Somehow (Obama as well tried to increase that particular export) the market has to be shut down. Ask the Associations, the individual ranchers, hear their plaints – life’s all about money to them.
They also claim it’s hard. Until chronic injury, I’ve met a lot harder work doing some other things less mean.
Maybe then, it’s hard to be mean, is what they’re saying.
Turns out social isolation is about the hardest thing humans experience.