I see that the Fish and Wildlife Department is at
it again, trying to save us from the big bad old

wolf.

When are these jerks
going to flearn that it is
absolutely insane to be using
helicopters, traps and
poisons to “control” an
animal which for thousands
of years was fended off by a
shepherd armed _ with
nothing more than a crooked
stick?

You may have caught that
absurd story recently about a
man being “treed” by wolves
on Vancouver Island. What
a crock! What the story

Tae

“Dig in, brother rat..

THEY ENCOURAGE THE

should have said, to be
factual, was that a man
climbed up a tree because he
was frightened by wolves,
not because of anything the
wolves actually did.

The Fish and Wildlife boys
see themselves as
“managers” of our wildlife
heritage, but the truth of the
matter is that they function
merely as an adjunct of the
agriculture department and
the hunting fraternity — you
know, the guys who say, let's

eae ‘a rit

LB)

go kill something because
itll put us in harmony with
nature.

One thing Ill say for the
Fish and Wildlife boys,
they're tenacious. They
applied no less than three
times this year for a permit
to poison wolves and
coyotes, using deadly 1080, a
chemcial which has been
banned in the United States
since 1972.

Among the arguments in
favor of the poisoning

was the big news
that wolves are killing too

. Pm dieting th week”

Crows ‘a health hazard’

Crows causing a
scious health hazard in the
Lower Lonsdale area, says
North Vancouver City
Alderman Stella Jo Dean

Dean told councsl
recently crows were picking
up garbage out of open
containers and dropping 1t
on the ground The garbage
encourages rats, which arc
notonous discase camers

Dean asked City” ad
mintstrator Ed Raymond to
look into getting mid of the
crows. But Raymond said
wild animals are the Concern
of the provincial fish and
wildlife dcpartment

Acting Mayor Gordon
Cross told Dean the province
only acts when the animals

pose a senous
human life

danger to

Dean said she’s received
six calls in the past two
weeks from. city residents
concerned about the crows.

“They're kalling = and

LOOK GREAT...FEEL GREAT

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1981 LONSDALE AVE... 985-9101

chasing the little birds .~
said

“We dont awaken to the
song of litte turds any more
Its just the ‘cawcaw’ of

crows.

Raymond said he would
look into the matter

rr ee aad

many deer on Vancouver
Island. Well, the truth is that

_ five consecutive years of

warm winters has produced
a population explosion
among the deer. Not sur-
prising, there has been a
population increase among
the wolves as well.

But if the wolves are
eating more deer, it is only
because there are more deer
to eat. As simple as that.
How do you build a serious
case for the use of something
as awful as 1080 out of that?

The chemical 1080, by the
way, takes up to 30 hours of
agony to kill an animal. Not
even the ayatollahs of Iran
are quite that disgusting in
their methods of execution.

ces

If the wolves were to be
wiped out on Vancouver
Island, you'd end up with a
situation such as exists on
the Queen Charlottes where
the deer, their growth un-
checked by any natural
predator, are stripping away
the bark from the trees.

taxpayer, a lot of sloppy
decision-making occurs.
After all, it’s no skin off the
cattleman's nose.

On the other hand, if he
had to pay for predator
contro! himself, an element
of economic rationality

would enter the picture.

see T he
programs would
evaporate.

In any event, less than
four per cent of livestock
losses are due to predation.
Stillbirths, for mstance,
account for 20 per cent of
such losses. After that come
various medical problems,
improper diets, and weather
factors.

If wolves were a serious
economic threat, they could
be dealt with by hiring
people to stand guard —
indeed, as our ancestors did
— or by putting up fences.
The only reason these poison
and trapping programs go
ahead is because a rancher
or farmer can call up for a
free extermination team to
come to his rescue — paid

you can be certain that if he
had to weigh the cost o
predator control a

wouldn't be so quick to call
in the government squads:
with their leghold traps and
poisons and various air and.
land vehicles.

So far as the business of
protecting domestic
livestock from wolves is
concerned, the Fish and
Wildlife department ought
to have nothing to do with it.
Such a task should be in the
hands of the agriculture

for by you and me.

Obviously, if a farmer sees
a wolf trying to eat his cow,

Doctor E.V. Gowda

department if government wishes to announce

has any duty at all along the association of

those lines — and I don't s

think itdoes. Dr. Ron J. Pudritz
gs stand, any . a

cattleman who wants to tor the Practice of Dentistry

simply up the phone Commencing August 1, 1980

and has the Fish and Wildlife .

Department rolling out the #201 - 1590 Bellevue

helicopter gunships at the West Vancouver

drop of a hat. Precisely

because the cost of killing

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