- Target:
- Canada’s Minister of Environment Peter Kent
- Region:
- Canada
- Website:
- news.petpardons.com
In response to the fact that tar sands oil mining is threatening caribou herds by destroying their habitat in Alberta, the Canadian government headed by Stephen Harper has called for strychnine poisoning and aerial shooting of thousands of wolves in areas near tar sands mining.
The big bad wolf in this struggle is not the furry kind; it’s the kind that walks on two legs. The caribou’s habitat is being destroyed by mining.
The Alberta Tar Sands has created a massive loss of habitat for all wildlife in the region, but perhaps the most profoundly affected has been the caribou.
But instead of taking steps to protect the caribou’s habitat, Canada’s Minister of Environment Peter Kent said that thousands of Alberta wolves will need to be killed to rescue caribou impacted by tar sands development.
Killing the wolves means shooting them from helicopters and poisoning them with baits laced with strychnine. Strychnine is a deadly poison that causes a painful progression from muscle spasms to convulsions to suffocation over a period of hours. It is an excruciating death. The poisoned baits will also pose a threat for non-targeted animals like cougars and wolverines that may eat them.
The minister is taking a man-made environmental disaster and scapegoating wolves so as not to interfere with the profits of the oil industry. But without healthy habitat, the endangerment of caribou is unavoidable, no matter how many wolves are murdered. Caribou and wolves need habitat. Together, they create a natural balance in the ecosystem.
Canada’s first priority should be protection of the habitat, not additional assaults on the native wildlife.
Read the full article here: http://news.petpardons.com/wolf-slaughter-is-canadas-solution-for-man-made-caribou-imbalance/
We, the undersigned, are calling on the Canadian Ministor of Environment, Peter Kent, to stop the proposed plan of slaughtering thousands of wolves in areas near tar sands mining.
Samuel Wasser, director of the Center for Conservation Biology at the University of Washington said that mining oil from tar sands is a greater threat to caribou than wolf predation. Wasser found that in winter, when food sources for caribou are thin, the animals rely on lichen. Unfortunately, that’s the time of year when oil production activity is at its height. Additionally, oil extracting operations take place in the same open, frozen areas that caribou use. The noise of the industrial commotion stresses the caribou.
We believe the tar sands oil mining is the real threat to the caribou population because of it's negative effect on caribou habitat. Without a healthy habitat, the endangerment of caribou is unavoidable, no matter how many wolves are murdered. Within a healthy ecosystem, these two animals create a natural balance.
We, the undersigned, are calling on the Canadian government to take responsibility and step in to stop Canadian oil producers from undermining the habitat of the caribou so they can survive rather than killing off wolves and other predators.
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The Stop the Canadian government from slaughtering wolves! petition to Canada’s Minister of Environment Peter Kent was written by Kimberley and is in the category Environment at GoPetition.