As many of you may recall, recently one of our contacts sent out an email containing disturbing photos of a wolf with an embedded snare around it's neck - in Alberta near Rocky Mountain House. It was from one of his trail cameras. In response and outrage, many of you asked why the wolf could not be rescued, treated and released again. WM decided to reach out to one of the wildlife rehabilitation centres operating in Alberta and ask. According to our source, wolves cannot be rescued nor are they the only species who are prohibited from rescue, rehabilitation and release in Alberta. Big horn sheep, mountain goats, wolves, coyote, black bears, grizzly bears, and cougars also are banned from rescue rehabilitation and release in Alberta. Our source further states:

Even though the Alberta Wildlife Act and Regulation issues permits authorizing Wildlife rescue rehabilitation and release and does not ban any indigenous wildlife species from rescue rehabilitation and release, the Alberta Environment and Parks, AEP, policy division has decided to ban certain species, like wolves, from rescue. (Travis Ripley Executive Director and Matt Basco Director of Wildlife)

No government agency can manage unknown populations of flora and fauna, (there has been no centrally managed unified province wide wildlife surveys of indigenous flora or fauna since 1978) and the government ends up doing really absurd things as a result. One of the ridiculous things the Provincial government has done, since 2010, was to ban ALL wildlife rehabilitation centres from accepting bears, raccoons, skunks, cougar, mountain goat, bighorn sheep, elk, amphibian and bat species. The Province (on the public record) does not have any data to support their decision. The Province (in law) does not have the Mandate to rescue, rehabilitate and release back into the wild orphaned or injured wildlife. No Government Mandate, means no earmarked government funding, which means no construction of facilities nor training for fish & wildlife officers to undertake wildlife rescue, rehabilitation & release. In Law (ALBERTA WILDLIFE ACT AND REGULATION)  the only organizations allowed, under government issued Permit, to accept, rear and release indigenous orphaned or injured wild species ARE the  8 Wildlife rehabilitation centres of Alberta....and of them, at least 3, in alphabetical order ( Cochrane Ecological Institute, Medicine River Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre, Wildlife rehabilitation society of Edmonton) have the facilities and expertise to look after most of these banned species. AER (when it was AESRD) is on the public record and in the Media, saying they had no record of human wildlife conflict occurrences resulting from wildlife rehabilitation &release. Nor any disease transference.

In pretty well all the States in the USA, State authorities work with the wildlife rehabilitation centres to rescue ,rear and rehabilitate their indigenous wildlife, including the species on Alberta's list of banned species.

Lacking the Mandate, facilities, funding and skills to rescue, rear & release indigenous wildlife species, the default actions of AEP and F&W is ban rescue of certain species and then the solution they have are to kill them. They kill wolf cubs, injured wolves, coyote cubs, coyotes, bear cubs, bears, mountain goat kids, mountain goats, bighorn lambs, bighorn sheep, raccoons and raccoon kits, skunks, elk calves,  cougar kittens, etc.

This is wrong. According to the Policy branch (wildlife) of AEP..the government is in a process of consultation with stakeholders.
Write and object to the banning of species from rescue rehabilitation & release! You can make a difference.


Here is a link to the Alberta Wildlife Act, and Wildlife Regulation: http://www.qp.alberta.ca/documents/Regs/1997_143.pdf

We are hearing from many people that Minister Phillips does not feel the need to respond to inquiries from the people who voted for her. It's time to get tough. We encourage you to write to her boss - Premier Rachel Notley and copy,  not only Minister Phillips, but also reporters from various media outlets who have reported on bounties and snares in the past. We encourage specific questions to the Premier, as well as letting her know that you are writing to her, as Minister Phillips is not responding. Also ask the Premier when you can expect a reply or if you need to do a FOIP request. We will be posting information on how to do a FOIP request and below have the addresses of reporters who have reported on this topic in the past, as well as some questions that you can ask. We need to get tougher. If everyone who follows this page wrote to the Premier and having failed to get accurate timely responses prepared a FOIP request then we may start to see some action. In addition, keep in mind that Pyramid Productions has just won a high regarded award for their film Unnatural Enemies: The War on Wolves. This is the same award that was awarded to Blackfish and The Cove and we all know how much exposure those films received. The time is now. If you want to see change, then Liking and sharing is just not enough and the GoA seems to feel okay about ignoring Albertans, it is time to get tough and be heard. Do not be ignored.

Some questions to ask -
1) Given the current science on how incredibly cruel and dangerous snares are and the countless scientist who have weighed in on that subject, in addition to the fact that they are not species specific, why are they continuing to be allowed in Alberta?
2) Why are special interest groups allowed to continue with bounties which work to serve their own interests such as the Wyoming Sheep Foundation, allowed to continue?
3) Section 7 of the Wildlife Act of Alberta states that all live wildlife is vested in the Crown. This means they have legal responsibility to manage wildlife in Alberta. This authority comes from our constitution under the Constitution Act, 1982. Provinces have the authority to manage wildlife.
In the bounty program in Alberta, this is not a provincial government program & the GoA has consistently stated it is not their program but the municipalities. The GoA has not given authority to the municipalities to conduct this program. It is a wildlife management program & according to constitutional authority, the GoA can not delegate that responsibility of managing wildlife through bounty programs to a lower level (municipalities).
Why is it then that the municipalities have simply taken this authority & developed this program & the GoA has taken a blind eye approach to it?
4) Given this statement from 2013, why does the Alberta Government allow a bounty program?
5) What was the total cost of the aerial wolf culling program for the Province of Alberta in caribou habitat in 2015 - 2016?
6) How many wolves were shot and how many were actually killed?
7) Does the Alberta aerial kill program also incorporate the use of the Judas wolf whereby one wolf is collared in order to locate and destroy the entire pack?

Feel free to copy anyone else you can think of who may be interested.
MARK HUME GLOBE AND MAIL
WALLACE SNOWDEN CBC NEWS wallace.snowden@cbc.ca
DANIELLE NERMAN CBC NEWS eyeopener@cbc.ca danielle.nerman@cbc.ca
DAMIEN WOOD CALGARY SUN - DWOOD@POSTMEDIA.COM
BILL MAH EDMONTON JOURNAL - bmah@edmontonjournal.com
ALBERTA SPCA - info@albertaspca.org
Marcia Love Spruce Grove Examiner mlove@postmedia.com
The Hon. Shannon Phillips is the Minister of Environment and Parks: AEP.Minister@gov.ab.ca
The Right Hon. Rachel Notley, Alberta's Premier : Premier@gov.ab.ca and your MLA can be found here: https://www.assembly.ab.ca/lao/mla/mla_help.htm

Wonderful news! Pyramid Productions documentary "Unnatural Enemies: The War on Wolves" has won a Genesis Award for Best International Television Documentary!  Congratulations to Geordie and his team for this compelling documentary that tells the truth about Alberta's wolves - http://www.humanesociety.org/about/events/genesis_awards/2016-winners.html?credit=web_id116031035

One of our contacts sent out an email the other day containing some disturbing photos of a wolf with an embedded snare around it's neck - in Alberta near RMH. It's from one of his trail cameras. He further wrote: "One trapper this winter complained that he had 7 chew out and several others complained of losing 1-4."
Trappers (and the Alberta government) continuously tell us that snares are humane killing devices, causing a quick death with no suffering. Trappers will tell you that their snares never fail, yet we have seen their conversations and photos on the AB trapping forum that tell the exact opposite - chew outs, jelly heads, live wolves found in snares are common. Read more here: http://www.wolfmatters.org/snaring.html
Most of the money trappers make in Alberta from snaring wolves is from bounties that are paid out by rural municipalities and some special interest hunting groups with little to no oversight from the provincial government. See more about bounties here: http://www.wolfmatters.org/bounties--killing-contests.html
Please write/call those in power that can change things:
The Hon. Shannon Phillips is the Minister of Environment and Parks and she has the authority to prohibit the use of snares in wolf trapping, an authority she has chosen to ignore. She can be reached at AEP.Minister@gov.ab.ca
The Right Hon. Rachel Notley, Alberta's Premier, can be contacted at Premier@gov.ab.ca and your MLA can be found here: https://www.assembly.ab.ca/lao/mla/mla_help.htm
For letter writing tips, please visit our page: http://www.wolfmatters.org/letter-writing--tips.html

The government of Alberta has somewhat silently killed wolves in a National Park. Read more from our WM pack member Jordan Wilkie:

"The Demise of the Elk Island Wolf Pack

In 2014, Dan Brown, president of Blackfoot Grazing Association started contacting media and the government claiming 29 animals had been killed or (get this) had gone missing from a pasture in the Cooking Lake-Blackfoot Grazing, Wildlife and Provincial Recreation Area. He believes wolves are largely to blame.

If this first paragraph makes you feel weird, that's because it is. The classic wolf scapegoat language is already being used here.

Alarmingly no one even knew how many wolves there were.. Parks Canada thought maybe 12-15. Brown exaggerated the number to over 25, but Parks Canada new that was not true and told media that there was no way that number was correct. Hence, they knew that they were now dealing with a liar that was embellishing the "wolf problem" and instead of being critical, they announced that they would allow a wolf cull.

The Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society (CPAWS) had celebrated the presence of wolves in and around Elk Island National Park as an indicator of the health and success of protected natural areas in the region, and in response to the news of the culling insisted that efforts should be made to seek a solution that does not involve the elimination of these animals.

Instead, in an attempt to minimize the impact on subsidized livestock being grazed on public land, the Alberta government approved the culling of six wolves by the grazing association themselves, inside the provincial recreation area.

Why were the ranchers allowed to cull these wolves?
And what exactly is a provincial recreation area?
Is this part of the Elk Island National Park?
What are the agreements to use the provincial land for grazing?
What measures are in place to protect the cattle from predators?

I have sent emails to Alberta Environment and Parks (AEP) and Environment Sustainable Resources Department (ESRD) asking for more information...

Regardless, the ranchers were given an Alberta Environment and Parks damage control licence... Which leads me to more questions..

What were the specific conditions on this license and how are these conditions held accountable?
How exactly were these wolves killed?
What was the process?
Who oversaw the kill?
How can we be sure that only six wolves were killed?

And of course... Why was the public only notified after the decision had been made?

ESRD of Alberta said they were going to establish a working group.. But that was a lie. CPAWs confirmed that they only spoke to these ranchers. They only catered to this grazing association.

Paul Frame, a carnivore specialist with Alberta Environment admitted: “What happens when the greater Edmonton public hears that we’re killing wolves in a provincial park because of livestock grazing?"

Well, nothing happened and this is why the future of the entire pack was now in deep jeopardy.

Paul Frame then said the words that have haunted me for two years... He told the Edmonton Journal: “We have no idea what killing six wolves is going to do.”

Nonetheless, Dan Brown was still not happy and made it very clear he wanted to kill more.

The Edmonton Journal reported that the first suspected wolf kill occurred at the end of May, but then reported that the cull was not officially approved by the AEP until the beginning of October, which infuriated the ranchers claiming that it took too long to decide what to do and that they couldn't afford to “hum and haw” again.

But wait... What does this mean?
Does this mean that there was an non-approved wolf cull on Provincial land? Wouldn't that be poaching?
And the quote that they "can't afford to hum and haw again", what does this mean?
That the association will not wait for approval to cull wolves in the future?

After this initial information and the allowance of the cull, there was almost no information. It wasn't until I picked up the Fall/Winter 2015 Conservation magazine that I found a sentence stating Delaney Anderson, a Biologist of the AEP, observed late in 2014 that some of the remaining wolves looked sick. Often sick wolves may have mange, which is easily curable, and if the health and numbers of the pack had disintegrated that much since the cull, why was there nothing done to ensure that the last of the pack were protected?

Also how many remained at this point?
Had the cull taken more than six?
Was the alpha wolf killed?

I was shocked when Conservation magazine reported that the AEP could only confirm two wolves still in the area as of March, 2015.

That was a year ago. I approached Alison Ronson of CPAWS after a talk she was doing at the UofA last February. She broke the news to me that the wolves were gone completely.

And for that I wept.
Because I cared about the Elk Island wolf pack.

And killing them, and leaving a remaining disorganized family to die is just not good enough.

- Jordan Wilkie

Be on the lookout for the Wolf Matters ad in the latest edition of the Lethbridge Magazine Expressions!

We still need you to help us by writing your MLA, and the Ministers of the province about the issues facing wolves.