A government planned wolf cull began on January 14, 2015. The plan is to shoot wolves from helicopters in a designated area in the West Kootenays in the effort to protect a dwindling heard of mountain caribou.  While it is important to protect these endangered caribou, this mass killing of innocent creatures has not been well researched by the BC government, and is not a practical solution.

There are two main reasons why this issue is so important:

1) Wolves are a vital part of a healthy ecosystem, and not enough research has been done to test the effects full effects of a wolf cull on the area.

2) There are other options to help protect the caribou that have not been explored.  Wolves are gaining access to high elevation caribou through snowmobile tracks.  By restricting or prohibiting recreational snowmobiling in caribou habitat, the wolves' access to caribou can be cut off.  

 Numerous studies have proven that wolves can change a landscape (eg. Yellowstone Park wolf reintroduction in 1995).  By removing the entire wolf population from the area, the entire ecosystem balance will be thrown off: for example deer populations will explode, leading to overgrazing of the landscapes,. While wolves may directly kill many species like the caribou, the give life to the ecosystem as a whole.

Wolves: we need you

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