A local contest offering prizes for hunters who kill the biggest wolves is back in the spotlight as a conservation group says the provincial government is breaking the law by not intervening. Despite being told by B.C. Gaming that the contest is legal, lawyers from West Coast Environmental Law, on behalf of Pacific Wild, are maintaining it is against the law.
Now in its third year, the contest is designed to encourage hunters to help reduce the number of wolves in the area, which has become a province-wide problem. Pacific Wild’s Ian McAllister says, “British Columbians should be furious that our government continues to allow wolves to be killed for money, prizes and other illegal lottery schemes when it is clearly against the law to hold a contest of this nature.”
West Coast Environmental Law calls the contest a “lottery scheme”, saying it should require a licence from the province to be legal, and could “undermine responsible management of wildlife”. Previously, Steve Thomson, Minister of Forests, Lands, and Natural Resources Operations, has been quoted as saying it does not break any provincial wildlife regulations, and provincial gaming officials have said it does not need a permit as it is skill-based.
In a previous interview with Moose FM/energeticcity.ca, an organizer of the contest explains that it came in part at request of the Peace Region agricultural community who were having livestock killed and rural residents losing pets, as well as wildlife on the decline because of the predators. The province has also come up with a wolf strategy to try and reduce some of their numbers, and has considered lifting bag limits in certain areas. The most wolves that have ever been brought in to the contest in one year is 13.
Erica Fisher