Stop extermination and extinction of wolves in the northern hemisphere

There are 3,500 wolves in Sakha, which sounds like a lot until you discover that the republic is the size of India. President Yegor Borisov wants to reduce the population to 500 through an intensive three-month hunt, supported by a state of emergency, bounties for every wolf shot and a prize of 1m roubles for the hunters who kill the most.

This "emergency" massacre is necessary, he claims, because wolves are killing too many domestic animals. Last year, apparently, they incurred 5m roubles' (£103,500) worth of losses - considerably less than the likely cost of the wolf hunt. Would it not make more sense to use the money to compensate the farmers? Would it not make more sense to protect the wolves' natural prey: animals such as hares which are currently being overhunted by people, driving the wolves to look elsewhere for food?Doubtless the Russian supporters of Borisov's bloodbath will respond that there are plenty of wolves left in Canada, so why bother protecting them in Russia? Well they too are likely to be disappointed, as similar massacres are being planned there, on the most cynical of premises. In Alberta,  the government plans to carry out a mass killing of wolves by shooting them from helicopters and poisoning them with strychnine.The reason, ostensibly, is to protect the woodland caribou, a subspecies of reindeer (Rangifer tarandus caribou), whose numbers have been diminishing rapidly. This, according to the Alberta Caribou Committee, is because wolves have been killing them. So what is this Alberta Caribou Committee? PetroCanada, Shell, BP, ConocoPhillips, Koch Petroleum, TransCanada Pipelines, Alberta-Pacific Forest Industries and the pulp company Daishowa Marubeni.