Below is an excerpt from the original article written by Stefan Labbe for The Times Colonist on January 27, 2022.
Between September and November 2021, the province surveyed over 15,000 British Columbians asking them what they thought of the predator reduction strategy. The results, released this month, found 59 per cent of respondents opposed culling wolves as a way to protect vulnerable caribou populations.
Most respondents preferred taking action on protecting and restoring caribou habitat or better regulating industry and recreation. One in six respondents said natural resource extraction was the main cause of caribou decline.
Such views have been supported by research from the University of British Columbia, which last fall found the B.C. government is subsidizing oil and gas drilling across a swathe of critical caribou territory it promised to protect.
Laurie McConnell, Pacific Wild wolf campaigner said, “If we’re still taking habitat, no amount of killing wolves will save the caribou.”
