Call to Ban Wildlife Killing Contests in BC
Some disturbing news out of British Columbia this morning, as my EXPOSED team and I have discovered not one, but TWO predator killing contests in the province (with the help of the Wildlife Defence League and Pacific Wild and concerned local citizens in Williams Lake and the Creston area).
The two contests are being run by a gun store in Williams Lake, Chilcotin Guns and by the Creston Valley Rod and Gun Club: https://tinyurl.com/yyqrfmnf and here: https://tinyurl.com/yywr237p (though I’ve also screenshot them below as pictures in case these Facebook posts are not viewable for many of you).
In response to these contests, we are encouraging people to write in and have your say on this. Ask for a total ban on these contests and tell these contacts/Ministers/departments that you will be taking your tourism dollar elsewhere (if you’re not from BC). And don’t forget to ask for a total overhaul of how wildlife is being managed in British Columbia, it’s time we started taking back our wildlife from the hunter-trapper centric model that is currently in place.
To make it easier on you, here are the contacts below, along with the letter/email I wrote (please feel free to copy and paste what you want out of it to save yourself some time):
Emails:EnquiryBC@gov.bc.ca, george.heyman.MLA@leg.bc.ca, FishandWildlife@gov.bc.ca, doug.donaldson.MLA@leg.bc.ca
Ministry of Environment & Climate Change Strategy
Telephone: 1-800-663-7867
EnquiryBC@gov.bc.ca
Hon. George Heyman – Minister of Environment & Climate Change Strategy.
E-mail: george.heyman.MLA@leg.bc.ca
Telephone: 1(250) 387-1187
Fish and Wildlife – Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations
Email: FishandWildlife@gov.bc.ca
Telephone: 1-877-855-3222
Hon. Doug Donaldson – Minster of Forests, Lands, Natural Resources
Email: doug.donaldson.MLA@leg.bc.ca
Telephone: (250) 387-6240
And the email I sent:
To whom it may concern,
I am writing to express my extreme concern with the state of wildlife management in British Columbia after discovering today that there are currently two predator killing contests being run in the province, one in Creston and another in Williams Lake (see attached screenshots and attachments). Are these contests legal, and if so, why are they legal? What kind of wildlife management is this to allow random killing of wild predators under the guise of population control, essentially letting hunters run free with doing whatever they want to do while the rest of us have to watch our predator populations get hammered?
I have a degree in Wildlife Management from UBC and I can assure you that I never learned a thing about how wildlife should be managed in this horrific and unscientific manner. It is bad enough that the province is allowing wolf culls to try to save caribou and bighorn sheep and still allowing unlimited trapping of our large predators like wolves, but to blatantly allow this kind of criminal, psychotic behaviour is disgusting, to be frank.
It is time for a total overhaul of how wildlife is managed in British Columbia, no longer can we sit by and let the ‘hunters’ and ‘trappers’ decide everything for us. Wildlife management needs to be based in science (including the social sciences), ethics and actual conservation needs and requirements moving forward. A good first step will be to make these wildlife killing contests illegal immediately.
Thank you for your attention to this important matter in a timely fashion.
Sincerely,
John E. Marriott
Please feel free to SHARE this as widely as you can, it’s time for the rest of us to start taking back control of how our wildlife is managed.