A controversial cull of B.C. wolves is back in the spotlight thanks to pop star Miley Cyrus.
The singer posted two images on her Instagram account this week protesting the province’s ongoing cull, which started last winter and is expected to continue for several years.
“I am shameless when it comes to making changes in a world that at times needs to reevaluate its morals when dealing with kindness and compassion towards animals,” Cyrus wrote Tuesday.
“We can’t let another winter pass us by without stopping this mass extermination!”
Cyrus also called on her 28 million Instagram followers to sign a Change.org petition calling for an end to the cull.
B.C.’s Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resources has defended its five-year, $2.1 million wolf management program as a necessary measure to protect caribou herds, several of which are at risk of becoming extinct.
The herd in the South Selkirk Mountains, for one, has slid from a population of 46 in 2009 to 18 last year.
But conservation group Pacific Wild, which launched the petition to end the cull, said it’s wrong to blame wolves for the caribou population’s decline.
Instead, the group has accused the government of failing to protect and restore the caribou’s natural habitat, which it said has been destroyed by logging, mining and oil and gas exploration over decades.
“The province is merely using wolves as a scapegoat for their own inaction. They should be protecting adequate levels of habitat for species such as endangered caribou,” Pacific Wild executive director Ian McAllister told CTV News.
“That is the real issue. It’s not wolves.”
Pacific Wild also takes issue with the province’s method of shooting wolves from helicopters, which was used to cull 84 wolves in the South Selkirks and South Peace regions from January to April this year.
“They’re killing highly intelligent, highly social animals that live in a family structure from the air and this is causing a tremendous amount of cruelty to these animals,” McAllister said.
Pacific Wild’s petition has already been signed more than 197,000 times. The group said once it reaches 200,000 signatures, it will deliver the petition to Victoria.
“We can only hope that someone in the Liberal government is going to start listening,” McAllister said.
The Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resources said it has been setting aside key habitat for caribou for years, and it uses penning projects to increase calf survival in endangered herds.
Ultimately, targeted wolf removal is also necessary to protect caribou, according to the ministry.
The government said B.C.’s wolf population is plentiful and the animals are “not a species of concern” in the province. There are estimated to be between 5,300 and 11,600 wolves in B.C.
The ministry said it is planning to evaluate its wolf management program in the fourth of its five years.
With a report from CTV Vancouver’s Bhinder Sajan
