The Ontario legislature has passed policy to legalize the hunt of cormorants at a rate of 50 PER DAY without any basis in scientific knowledge. This is the policy info page. This will allow poaching of these protected birds on stolen Indigenous lands. As the birds are a significant member of their ecosystem, genocide of the scale that is being permitted would cause a disruption in surrounding environment.
To save countless, defenceless lives sign and share this petition and your opinions with:
- Friends / family
- Your local MPP.
- Other local candidates in different parties
- Public input coordinator for the issue
- Ontario Public Animal Welfare
- Private animal welfare organizations
- News agencies reporting on the topic
- Local Veterinarians
- Ontario Environmental Registry
Notable opinions:
1) Edward Kroc, Phd. UBC
"The Government of Ontario's current proposal to introduce an open hunting season on Double-crested Cormorants from March 15 to December 31 each year has no basis in scientific knowledge and neglects the interests of a wide variety of citizens who interact with wildlife without killing it. This document offers a critique of the government's proposal while citing the relevant scientific knowledge. Often-repeated concerns by some hunters and recreational anglers that cormorants negatively impact fish populations, forest habitat, and other species have been thoroughly qualified or debunked. Notably, lethal management of waterbirds does not address the root causes of fish population instability or decline, and directly contradicts current conservation measures at local, regional, national, and international levels.
The government's hunting proposal is gratuitous, irresponsible, and cruel. In particular, the proposal to allow hunters to kill 50 cormorants per day could feasibly permit the eradication of the entire species from the Great Lakes in a single year, assuming below average hunter engagement. More specifically, if only 1 in 100 Ontarian hunters each killed only 50 cormorants over an entire hunting season, this would still be enough to eradicate the species from the Great Lakes entirely. The Double-crested Cormorant is a native species to Ontario whose population has only recently recovered from human persecution and pollution-induced declines. This is no time to be stepping backwards. This species has a right to exist and feed on its native land, and the government has an ethical and legal responsibility to ensure its relative health."
2) St. Catherine's Standard
"A 2002 study by the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources confirmed the population of cormorants had demonstrated a population rebound typical of any species that was once on the brink of extinction. The population had reached ecological carrying capacity and levelled off in the Great Lakes. Culling the birds would only cause the population to rebound again."
3) Vine Deloria, God is Red. Pg.296
"The future of humankind lies waiting for those who will come to understand their lives and take up their responsibilities to all living things."
