Who the Predator, Who the Prey?

AP photo

Who the predator, who the prey?

Sister Wolf, run fast away.

Hide your babies, the long guns come.

Run, Brother Wolf, I beg you,

Run!

You must think  we all are blind,

we humans who are so unkind.

I cannot bear the thought of you,

in shock, at what we humans do.

My tears dont help. My love cant reach.

Earth's lessons it's too late to teach

us how to live upon the land, 

guns all that some can understand.

I cannot bear the thought of you,

crazed with fear below the planes.

Run fast, my beauties. Flee the pain.

I pray that some of you remain

to start your families once again.

The B.C. government, with its consistent lack of wisdom, has given away vast tracts of the people's land to corporate interests over the decades, thus severely decimating wildlife habitat. In a typical knee-jerk reaction, it has decided the way to prevent dwindling caribou herds from extinction, at this late date, is to send sharp-shooters in helicopters to "cull" up to 184 wolves in the South Peace  and South Selkirk regions.

Given the mindset of anyone involved in the decimation of B.C. forests, I am not surprised that Assistant Deputy Minister Tom Ethier, Ministry of Forests, deems the shooting of wolves from helicopters "the most humane way to  remove  wolves."

This  typically short-sighted "solution" demonstrates this government's chronic inability to grasp long-term and nature-based sustainable stewardship of the land.

"B.C.'s plan faced immediate resistance from environmentalists, who condemned such mass culls as inhumane and ineffective, while accusing the government of ignoring the habitat degradation at the heart of the caribou's plight," stated Global News.

"The B.C. government has declared war on wolves", says Ian McAllister, conservation director of Pacific Wild. "The government has not moved to protect adequate habitat." On CBC Radio yesterday, he said "What is happening here is not the shooting of herds. We are killing families, of this highly intelligent and iconic animal."

"Habitat loss, not wolves, is driving the caribou decline," agrees Paul Paquette, of the Raincoast Conservation Foundation. "Caribou are on a long-term slide to extinction because of what humans have done." 

A similar program has been in place in Alberta since 2006, with a thousand wolves being shot from helicopters or poisoned.

I have to ask: who is the predator and who the prey? Who is the more intelligent species? Sadly, I know the answer only too well. Goddess help us, for we clearly know not what we are doing.

To sign the petition to stop the killing of B.C. Wolves  click here to go to Pacific Wild.

sources: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/wolf-cull-will-see-animals-shot-from-helicopter-to-save-b-c-caribou-1.2904364

http://globalnews.ca/news/1775813/b-c-hunting-wolves-by-helicopter-to-save-endangered-caribou/