The Reinstatement of Cochrane Ecological Institute's (CEI) Operating Permits.
The Issue
Several days after the Cochrane Ecological Institute (CEI) took in a three-month-old orphaned female bear cub covered in bitumen from up north, provincial authorities showed up without warning on the 140-acre treed property northwest of Cochrane.
The authorities seized the animal and cancelled the CEI's annual permit to rehabilitate orphaned bear cubs indefinitely.
The CEI began rehabilitating orphaned black bears in 1985. Up until its permit was revoked, it was one of two facilities in Alberta permitted to do so (apart from the period of time in 2010 to 2018 when black-bear cub rehab was generally prohibited by the province). The other facility, the Alberta Institute for Wildlife Conservation, started rehabilitating the animals in 2002 under its previous name, Rockyview Wildlife Recovery.
Clio Smeeton, the president of the CEI, says she was told by fish and wildlife officers that she had violated three sections of the institute's wildlife rehabilitation permit.
But Smeeton believes they were minor errors, and claims one of the issues is baseless.
"This is immoral and wrong," said Smeeton.
"The whole of this could have been avoided. All of it was unnecessary. You seize animals for animal welfare reasons. There were none."
Smeeton said she believes the province is coming down hard now because she's repeatedly butted heads with the province over its orphaned black bear protocols written in 2018. She said she's done so based on expert input from her advisory committee.
The animal director at the Calgary Wildlife Rehabilitation Society said it would be a huge loss for the rehabilitation of orphaned bear cubs if Smeeton loses the permit permanently.
"They're also doing research on rehabilitation of bears, so they're collecting data on how well this works and all of that data is provided to other rehabbers all over the world … [to] keep growing in that field," the Director said.
Clio Smeeton and the CEI also started the swift fox reintroduction program in 1974. Decades of dedication shouldn't be discarded.
https://www.natureconservancy.ca/en/where-we-work/alberta/stories/cochrane-ecological-institute.html
Please lend your voice to our cause to have the CEI permits reinstated as soon as possible. Every day they don't operate, Alberta wildlife conservation efforts suffer.
The Issue
Several days after the Cochrane Ecological Institute (CEI) took in a three-month-old orphaned female bear cub covered in bitumen from up north, provincial authorities showed up without warning on the 140-acre treed property northwest of Cochrane.
The authorities seized the animal and cancelled the CEI's annual permit to rehabilitate orphaned bear cubs indefinitely.
The CEI began rehabilitating orphaned black bears in 1985. Up until its permit was revoked, it was one of two facilities in Alberta permitted to do so (apart from the period of time in 2010 to 2018 when black-bear cub rehab was generally prohibited by the province). The other facility, the Alberta Institute for Wildlife Conservation, started rehabilitating the animals in 2002 under its previous name, Rockyview Wildlife Recovery.
Clio Smeeton, the president of the CEI, says she was told by fish and wildlife officers that she had violated three sections of the institute's wildlife rehabilitation permit.
But Smeeton believes they were minor errors, and claims one of the issues is baseless.
"This is immoral and wrong," said Smeeton.
"The whole of this could have been avoided. All of it was unnecessary. You seize animals for animal welfare reasons. There were none."
Smeeton said she believes the province is coming down hard now because she's repeatedly butted heads with the province over its orphaned black bear protocols written in 2018. She said she's done so based on expert input from her advisory committee.
The animal director at the Calgary Wildlife Rehabilitation Society said it would be a huge loss for the rehabilitation of orphaned bear cubs if Smeeton loses the permit permanently.
"They're also doing research on rehabilitation of bears, so they're collecting data on how well this works and all of that data is provided to other rehabbers all over the world … [to] keep growing in that field," the Director said.
Clio Smeeton and the CEI also started the swift fox reintroduction program in 1974. Decades of dedication shouldn't be discarded.
https://www.natureconservancy.ca/en/where-we-work/alberta/stories/cochrane-ecological-institute.html
Please lend your voice to our cause to have the CEI permits reinstated as soon as possible. Every day they don't operate, Alberta wildlife conservation efforts suffer.
The Decision Makers
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Petition created on June 10, 2021