Press Release: South Selkirk Wolves Confirmed Slaughtered in Second Year of BC Wolf Cull
SOUTH SELKIRK, February 18, 2016 – BC-based conservation organization, Wildlife Defence League, has received information that the second year of the BC Liberals’ five year plan to cull wolves in the South Selkirk region is now over.
Sources connected to the slaughter disclosed that all pack members, with the exception of a “Judas” wolf, have been gunned down by helicopter. Until now, it was understood that “Judas” wolves are collared in the spring and tracked in the winter, when the Judas wolf and his or her family were killed.
“We were shocked to learn the Judas wolf is kept alive year after year,” said Tommy Knowles, Campaign Director for Wildlife Defence League. “He or she is left to pack up with a new family, who are deliberately baited into the territory. The next winter, the Judas wolf’s new pack is slaughtered. If watching your family killed year after year by snipers in helicopters is what this government considers a “humane” cull, I shudder to imagine what they consider inhumane.”
Conservation organizations, independent biologists and even the BC Liberals have acknowledged habitat destruction, including logging, as the root cause of caribou decline. While in the field, Wildlife Defence League documented active logging operations in the same territory where wolves are being slaughtered by helicopter. Despite government claims to have protected 2.2 million hectares in the South Selkirk, the reality is that only 108,000 hectares have been set aside – a mere 5% of what was promised under the Mountain Caribou Recovery Plan and much of which is pre-existing provincial parks and private property.
Trail cameras set up in the area captured an image of a wolf. “This wolf puts a face to the cull. He or she is either now dead, at the hands of the BC Liberals and Bighorn Helicopters, or is their “Judas” wolf. Both possibilities are beyond comprehension,” said Knowles.
Anyone with information about the South Peace and South Selkirk culls is encouraged to get in touch with the organization.