Ontario is trying, again, to remove protection from wolves in this province. This time they are targeting the Eastern Wolf. As a long time resident of this beautiful province, it grieves my heart to think of these majestic and necessary animals being targeted for the second time in a year.
The eastern wolf is Canada's rarest wolf species, numbering as few as 250 mature animals. In Ontario, the wolves were recently designated a Threatened species, but new government plans will strip the majority of protection that is afforded to all Threatened species under the Endangered Species Act.
Ontario is home to 65% of the global population of eastern wolves, as few as 154 mature animals. Hunting and trapping are the number one threats to the eastern wolves. In order to protect these wonderful wolves hunting and trapping must be banned.
The government is requesting feedback on 2 proposals that will allow hunters and trappers to keep killing the wolves across the majority of their range, with protection limited to just 3 areas that are too small and disconnected to support wolf families. Please add your voice before August 22nd 2016!
19 organizations across North America have called on Ontario to prevent this irreversibly damaging proposal. Will you stand with them? The last time Care2 members mobilized to protect Ontario's wolves, we won. This gives me hope that we can make a difference again.
Sign today to protect these rare and majestic wolves. By signing today you are sending a strong message that wolves in Ontario are valued.
To the Honourable Minister Kathryn McGarryn,
As someone who values the natural environment I am deeply concerned about the recent proposals for eastern wolf management in Ontario.
I ask that the Ontario Minister of Natural Resources and Forestry recognize that hunting and trapping Algonquin wolves, eastern coyotes, and their hybrids in Ontario is the most significant threat facing the Threatened wolves.
I call on the Minister to enforce protection provisions built into section 9 of the Endangered Species Act (2007) and immediately ban all wolf and coyote hunting and trapping across the described extent of occurrence for Algonquin wolves. Additionally, the Minister must update closure areas as government biologists continue to survey Ontario to refine the known distribution of the wolves.
Lastly, the Minister must commit to tracking Algonquin wolf killing by requiring that all coyotes, wolves or their hybrids killed outside of the Algonquin wolf extent of occurrence be genetically assigned.
[Your Comment Here]
Sincerely,
[Your Name]
