Wild Horses as wolf bait a 'hot button' issue
By Larry Pynn, VANCOUVER SUN May 10, 2009Bureaucrats sought to insulate provincial environment minister from plan to use equine carcasses to protect caribou in the Chilcotin from wolves
In 1971, the United States declared wild horses "living symbols of the historic and pioneering spirit of the West" that should be protected.
Provincial bureaucrats considered the shooting of wild horses for wolf bait in B.C. a “hot button” political issue against which Environment Minister Barry Penner should be insulated, according to freedom-of-information documents obtained by The Vancouver Sun.
The documents also hint at internal ministry debate over the use of potentially dozens of horse carcasses as bait in various regions of the province to control wolves posing a risk to threatened caribou herds.
The e-mail exchanges relate to a story published Dec. 6 in The Sun revealing that the Ministry of Environment paid Chilcotin natives $500 apiece a year ago to shoot horses for wolf bait.
On Dec. 5, Dan Gilmore, the ministry’s communications manager, writes of this reporter: “Pynn is looking to talk with someone about the horses. The story will go badly sideways and the minister could get dragged into this.” On Dec. 6, Gilmore makes a reference to Rodger Stewart, regional manager in the environment ministry office in Williams Lake: “Late Friday afternoon Pynn tried to drag the minister into the story to respond to the Chilcotin. Thanks to Rodger calling Pynn, we avoided that. Thanks again!”
On Dec. 7, Stewart makes reference to an earlier comment from Ralph Archibald, the ministry’s assistant deputy minister: “I will be sending some notes to Ralph on the topic of ‘what the blazes were we thinking.’
“We did not lightly treat the decision to use horses, and took a very practicable approach given the real-life circumstances of every day life in this region.”
Stewart explains that horse carcasses have proven more effective than cows at luring in wolves, and that aboriginal people do not want moose — important for subsistence — shot for such purposes.
Wolves lured to the horse bait have been killed as part of a wider program to increase southern herds of threatened mountain caribou, estimated in spring 2008 to number just 1,883.
Documents show the ministry bought seven horses in January 2008, one horse in February, and another seven horses in March.
The documents also make reference to dozens of horses being required for wolf control this past winter across much of the province, including the Quesnel area, Kamloops and the Kootenays.
Stewart writes in a Dec. 8, 2008, e-mail that “to meet program objectives across three regions...we need approximately 40 animals.”
On Dec. 10, Randy Wright, a wildlife biologist in the same office, makes reference to the need for “30 animals” in the region the week of Jan. 12, 2009.
Stewart also states: “The majority of our supply of horses has been coming from First Nations communities, ranches and domestic sources....and from horse herds that are free-ranging...”
Penner has since said that only five horses were utilized for bait last winter in one region.
Stewart also wrote that The Sun’s story had actually generated interest among other native groups in the cash-for-dead-horses program. “They too have free ranging horse herds and a requirement to cull, and because of the article, now want to participate.”
The province has historically considered wild horses to be feral animals lacking protection under the Wildlife Act. They mainly live in the Chilcotin where first nations manage them unfettered by government.
lpynn@vancouversun.com
Photograph by: Getty Images File Photo, National Post
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