For more than a decade, British Columbia (B.C.) has killed thousands of wolves from helicopters, calling it “predator reduction” while the real driver of caribou decline — habitat destruction — continues largely unchecked. This spring, the Province quietly proposed extending the wolf cull for another five years, without a public comment period and without releasing the up-to-date report it had promised on the program and proposed changes.
We refused to let that pass without a fight. Here’s where things stand.
What we’ve done so far
On June 15th, 2026, Pacific Wild submitted formal stakeholder feedback to the B.C. government opposing the five-year extension. Alongside that submission, we delivered letters from more than 1,800 people, a number that has since passed 2,000, calling on the Province to stop scapegoating wolves and start protecting the caribou habitat that is rapidly disappearing under their leadership.
We also organized an open letter opposing the extension, addressed to Premier David Eby, Minister of Water, Land & Resource Stewardship Randene Neill, and Minister of Forests Ravi Parmar. It’s now been signed by more than 100 environmental organizations and businesses, all making the same point: this program should not be renewed without evidence that it’s humane, ethical, and effective.
At minimum, the questions and concerns raised in our feedback and open letter, along with those raised by many other experts, organizations, and community members, should be addressed before any extension is approved. And so far, the government has not replied.
the transparency problem
There has been no public comment period for this proposed extension. No public document has been released explaining what is being proposed or why. Instead, select stakeholder groups were shown a PowerPoint presentation that did not include the program’s 2025–26 data. Decisions that could determine the fate of thousands more wolves are being made behind closed doors, with an undisclosed list of stakeholders, using information the public has not been allowed to review and on a timeline the public was never invited to engage with.
Meanwhile, the justification for the cull continues to erode under scientific scrutiny. The broad consensus in the peer-reviewed literature is that caribou declines are driven primarily by habitat loss and fragmentation from logging, mining, oil and gas exploration, road-building, and increasingly intensive off-road vehicle use. The Province has sanctioned much of that activity, and it continues even as the government kills wolves in the name of caribou conservation. Government officials cannot claim to be saving a species while approving the destruction of the ground it stands on.
This inaction has contributed to the decline of nearly 75% of B.C.’s caribou herds. Nine have already been lost. Scientists, conservationists, and First Nations are pleading for action. The Syilx Okanagan and Xatśūll First Nations recently called on Ottawa to take emergency action to protect the last remaining caribou herds in their territory, which are struggling to survive as their habitat loss is accelerating.
A wider warning
B.C. is not the only place where habitat protection is under threat. In the United States, the Trump Administration recently finalized a rule that weakens the Endangered Species Act (ESA) protections by narrowing the definition of “harm” and removing habitat destruction from that definition. In effect, that means destroying habitat may no longer count as harming a protected species in the same way it once did.
This kind of rollback should alarm anyone who cares about species recovery. And it’s happening right here in Canada, as well. The federal government recently proposed weakening the Canadian Species at Risk Act by removing a key safeguard against projects that jeopardize the survival or recovery of endangered species, opening the door to industrial development even when it puts at-risk wildlife in further danger.
A crack in the government’s position
Here’s the part that makes this moment different in B.C.: last month, Global News put the growing public backlash directly to Minister Neill. Her response was the first real opening we’ve seen in years: she said her Ministry would be willing to look into anything that puts animal welfare first, including an audit.
“We would absolutely not do any predator control that was not considered humane by scientists and biologists and those who care about animal welfare…I would say that I would be happy to look into anything that puts the welfare of the animals first. That includes an audit.”
No such audit has ever taken place. For more than ten years, British Columbians have been told that wolves are killed cleanly, by trained professionals following strict protocols, yet no independent body has been brought in to verify those claims. Cull photos obtained by Pacific Wild through freedom-of-information requests tell a different story: multiple gunshot wounds across the body, not just the clean head or spine shots veterinary euthanasia guidelines generally identify as humane practice for wild animals. Animal welfare auditors who inspect meat-processing operations for a living have said this is exactly the kind of program that third-party auditing exists to check. The Province has simply never allowed that scrutiny.
If the wolf cull’s methods really meet the ethical standard the government claims, an audit should be straightforward. So why has the Province failed to conduct one in the decade since the program began?
Minister Neill’s comment doesn’t guarantee anything. But it is now on the record, and it gives us a rare opening to hold the government accountable. That is exactly what Pacific Wild intends to do. And it’s also why sustained pressure from thousands of letter-writers matters right now, before a new permit to kill wolves under the Wildlife Act is granted this fall.
Why wolves matter
Lost in the government’s bloodless language of “removal” and “predator management” is what a wolf pack actually is: a close-knit family, with complex social bonds that plays an outsized role in shaping the health of an entire ecosystem. Wolves are a keystone species influencing prey populations in ways that can affect the ecosystems they inhabit, by shaping vegetation diversity, river systems, and the ranges of other species. Their presence, or absence, ripples through a landscape in ways science is still uncovering.
Removing wolves from the landscape is not clean or simple. Experts Pacific Wild has spoken with describe shooting wolves from helicopters as stressful, messy, difficult, and unpredictable. In B.C.’s wolf cull, some wolves are radio-collared and released as so-called “Judas wolves.” These collared wolves are then tracked back to their pack, effectively leading shooters to the rest of the family to be killed. Sometimes pups are left behind to fend for themselves, or collared so the cycle may continue.
Video 1: Randene Neill’s comments and Pacific Wild’s interviews with experts about the humaneness of the wolf cull.
Video 2: Pacific Wild delivers public comments to the B.C. government and shares past polling results.
Video 3: Data scientist Jonah Keim shares his findings on researching non-lethal alternatives to the cull.
Recent research, including a UBC study, has also found that killing wolves does not reliably help caribou because other predators, such as grizzly bears and wolverines, may move into the gap left behind. Not only that, but killing wolves leaves caribou and other ungulates more vulnerable to an uncontrolled spread of chronic wasting disease which has in recent years crept north from Colorado into British Columbia.
Killing thousands of wolves while allowing the habitat destruction that drove caribou into decline is not wildlife management. It’s a substitute for the harder political decision the Province has repeatedly avoided: protecting and restoring caribou habitat.
Where do we go from here?
This fight is not over. The Province still has to approve a new permit under the Wildlife Act this fall, which means there’s still time to shape the outcome. Pacific Wild has been on the case for over 10 years. We’re not slowing down, and we hope you won’t either.
Write to Minister Neill and Premier Eby
Hold the Minister to her own words and demand a real, independent audit before any wolf cull extension is approved. You can send a letter in minutes using Pacific Wild’s action tool, or write directly to:
- Minister Neill: WLRS.Minister@gov.bc.ca
- Premier Eby: premier@gov.bc.ca
- B.C. Caribou Recovery Program: caribou.recovery@gov.bc.ca
Join our upcoming webinar
Wild Kin: Wolves, Dogs, and Why Their Bond Matters explores the deep connection between wolves and the dogs many of us share our homes with, and what that bond means for how we protect wild wolves going forward.
Walk for wolves on August 13th
Join our Dog Walk for Wolves, a public advocacy event in support of stronger wolf protections. We’re hosting the flagship walk in Victoria, but we’re encouraging supporters across North America to organize walks in their own communities. However you take part, it’s a chance to show the government that public support for wolves, and pressure to end indiscriminate wolf killing, isn’t going anywhere.
Minister Neill said she’d support an audit if it puts animal welfare first. We intend to find out if she meant it.
