Documents show ‘inhumane’ approach to B.C. wolf cull, group says

The province maintains that the program, which is meant to reduce predators and protect threatened caribou populations, is carried out in a humane way. 

The B.C. government is facing new criticism over its controversial wolf cull program.

The province has maintained that the program, which is meant to reduce predators and protect threatened caribou populations, is carried out in a humane way.

But the Fur-Bearers, a non-profit animal welfare group, says it has obtained documents using freedom of information filings that show hunters tagging and tracking young pups to help kill wolfpacks.

“As part of … those FOI requests, this recent batch, we found that the contractors are actually using wolf pups in their methods,” Fur-Bearers director of advocacy and policy Aaron Hofman told Global News.

Much of what activists know about Victoria’s wolf kill program has come from freedom of information requests.

In his latest inquiry, Hofman said the group discovered something that hadn’t been previously known to the public: that wolf pups as well as adults have been gunned down.

He was particularly troubled by some killings he says the documents revealed from February of this year near Tweedsmuir Provincial Park.

“They’re capturing wolf pups, they’re collaring them and then they’re tracking their packs,” he said.