Stop Ontario's War on Wolves!

The Ontario may soon decide whether or not to open up wolf and coyote hunting across more than 750,000km2 of northern Ontario.

Please remind them that wolves and coyotes shouldn't be blamed for moose declines, and ask them to abandon proposed changes that would:

Eliminate the special game seal that hunters currently have to purchase to kill wolves and coyotes.

Increase the number of wolves that can be hunted.

Scrap all reporting requirements which will make the limit of 2 wolf kills per hunter per year unenforceable.

Remove limits and closed seasons for coyotes, thereby allowing mass killing ...

The Ontario may soon decide whether or not to open up wolf and coyote hunting across more than 750,000km2 of northern Ontario.

Please remind them that wolves and coyotes shouldn't be blamed for moose declines, and ask them to abandon proposed changes that would:

Eliminate the special game seal that hunters currently have to purchase to kill wolves and coyotes.

Increase the number of wolves that can be hunted.

Scrap all reporting requirements which will make the limit of 2 wolf kills per hunter per year unenforceable.

Remove limits and closed seasons for coyotes, thereby allowing mass killing of coyotes and their pups.

Protecting moose means taking meaningful actions to halt climate change, ending the moose calf hunt, tightening adult moose hunting regulations and conserving ecosystem function at the landscape level.

If the Ministers remove mandatory reporting that was introduced in 2005, we'll never know how many wolf and coyote family packs will be torn apart under new regulations. Wolves and coyote live in family-based packs. Losing even one pack member can result in social breakdown and affect their collective survival.

There is no scientific justification for these changes. The Ontario government admits that more wolf hunting won't increase moose, and that eastern coyotes don't impact moose since they don't overlap in northern Ontario.

Ask the Minister of Natural Resources and Forestry and Premier Ford to stand by Ontario's Wolf Conservation Strategy and conserve these keystone species.

Photo: Michael J. McIntosh

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image of Stop Ontario's War on Wolves!

Submit your official comment by September 26th

Exercise your environmental rights and comment in support of wolf conservation, not hunting. We defeated these changes in 2015, now let's do it again! Comments are directed to the public input coordinators running the consultation, the Minister of Natural Resources and Forestry, the Premier and your MPP.

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Subject:

Thank you for considering steps to better protect Ontario’s moose population. I support the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry's (MNRF's) proposed implementation of the the Big Game Management Advisory Committee's (BGMAC) recommended preference point tag allocation system, removal of the right of resident’s immediate family members to hunt, as well as limiting party hunting size and spread.

I hope that the Ministry will consider phasing out calf hunting given that Ontario's research scientists found that the calf hunt was additive rather than compensatory to natural mortality in central Ontario, and that females are more likely to abandon moose where they are hunted. Natural mortality is evolutionarily important – our wildlife communities co-evolved over millennia and make each other stronger. Relative to the moose on the landscape, wolves kill the youngest, oldest and weakest moose, leaving the strong moose behind to reproduce. BGMAC’s surveys show that most hunters support calf protection.

What won’t help our moose is the liberalization of wolf and coyote hunting. Eastern coyotes are generalists, not significant predators of moose. Moreover, it is unethical to allow unlimited killing of these animals, especially during pup-rearing season. More than 2,000 hunters were listed as actively hunting canids last year in the management units where the proposed changes would take place. If every active canid hunter from last year killed wolves, the wolf population would be devastated; game seals help limit interest. However, since wolves are difficult to hunt, the proposed regulation changes will likely only make wolf packs smaller. MNRF's website outlines that smaller wolf packs don’t eat significantly fewer moose than larger packs.

There is no sound science behind this proposal to open up wolf and coyote hunting. Liberal canid hunting may alter predation dynamics and removing the requirement for hunters to report their kills on an annual basis means that this proposal may have unknown and unintended consequences for other species that wolves impact. For example, wolves might switch to caribou if packs are weakened because caribou are easier to kill compared to moose. Woodland caribou are a threatened species.

I urge the Ontario government to abandon the proposal to liberalize wolf and coyote hunting, move forward with proposed actions to conserve our moose, and phase out calf hunting. I ask that reporting requirements and their enforcement be strengthened. Data is at the heart of effective wildlife conservation; a lack of reporting requirements demonstrates the government's unwillingness to take the management of our wildlife, a public trust belonging to all Ontarians, as seriously as is claimed. Apex predators are essential to maintaining biodiversity, and as an Ontario resident, their existence in the province is a priority to me.

Sincerely,

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