B.C.’s gamble: Slaughter wolves to save threatened caribou herd

VICTORIA — British Columbia is aiming to increase the number of wolves it kills this winter in the second year of a plan to save endangered caribou, prompting criticism from celebrities and renewed debate over the controversial strategy.

The wolf cull is the best shot to protect threatened caribou from extinction, say caribou experts and government officials, who admit it will take years to determine if the science behind killing wolves works.

“It’s like trying to dial a radio station in with boxing gloves on,” said Tom Ethier, an assistant deputy minister at B.C.’s Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations, which oversees the cull.

“We’re really trying to figure out: does this work?”

The government planned to kill about 200 wolves last winter, but a low snowpack and bad weather made the hunt difficult, he said.

Sharpshooters in helicopters killed 84 wolves in B.C.’s northeast and southeast regions, Ethier said.

Wolves are preying on the herds, reducing some caribou in those areas to the point of near extinction, he said. “We did not meet our goal, so this year there could be more wolves removed.”

The South Selkirk caribou herd had just 18 animals in March 2014, down from 46 in 2009, the government said. There are about 950 caribou in seven herds in the northeast, with wolves responsible for 40 per cent of deaths in four of those herds.

“This is why we need to act,” Ethier said. “In five years, we’re hoping to turn it around and hoping it tells us this technique works. Obviously, we would prefer choices that are not as striking as this one, and not so loaded emotionally.”

Miley Cyrus and Pamela Anderson have criticized the hunt. On Friday, Anderson called on B.C. Premier Christy Clark to find a better solution to save caribou than the slaughter of wolves. Cyrus asked her Instagram followers to sign a Pacific Wild petition to stop the killings.