'Unethical' killing of B.C. wolves the focus of campaign by local artist and charity

The B.C. government is still killing wolves as part of its Caribou Recovery Program, and a new ad campaign is designed to draw attention to the cull and ensure the public doesn’t forget it.

Featuring drawings by B.C. artist Sarah Ronald, the ad showcases a young wolf named Nadina who was killed by contractors last winter.

“They collared her. They killed her entire family, so seven members in her pack, and then left her orphaned in the wild,” said Aaron Hofman of The Fur-Bearers.

“Six weeks later, contractors found her again, she was travelling with another wolf pup and contractors killed them both,” he said, adding the story was discovered in contractor reports.

The government says mountain caribou are at risk of extinction, and in 2015 it “made the difficult decision” to cull wolves in the South Selkirk and South Peace regions, because it believes wolves are the leading cause of caribou mortality.

The program has sharp-shooters killing wolves from helicopters.

“The recovery of woodland caribou populations is a top priority for our government,” the Ministry of Water, Land and Rescource Stewardship wrote in a response to CTV News. “After years of research, we know that predator management is an effective, temporary measure to halt and reverse caribou population declines in B.C.”

Without it, the government insisted, many caribou herds could face extinction.

Yet Hofman argued the killing is “unethical," and that loss of habitat by expanding industry is the real problem.

“So the government is victimizing wolves as the enemy, when it’s humans that are the problem,” said Hofman.

“The science is clear too that without addressing these fundamental drivers of caribou declines, the wolf cull won’t actually save caribou, they will ultimately be extirpated anyway. So really, they’re just essentially buying time until the caribou are lost,” Hofman argued.

The new ad campaign will be featured on YouTube and on buses.