A week ago and ending Monday in $16,000 in fines, we heard Ducks Unlimited, wildlife officials and others, tell us about the evils of shooting ducks, loons and ducklings and what happens when you do. It was called, among other things, a waste of wildlife,
cruel, barbaric and numerous other names.
Apparently that random waste and barbarism does not extend to the "Conservation" officers themselves. Here's the latest headline from the Edmonton Journal.
Officers 'massacre' 12 bears at northern Alberta landfill
Official defends decision to shoot scavengers at landfill
"The landfill had improper fencing and there were reports people were feeding the bears," Alberta Sustainable Resource Development spokesman Darcy Whiteside said.
"It was public safety concern. These bears were not afraid of humans anymore."
SO WHY NOT FIX THE FENCES
"Instead of investing in fences that would keep the bears out of the garbage and away from humans, they decide the cheapest solution is to lay to waste a bunch of living animals as if they didn't have a right to exist. It's really deplorable," said Sid Marty, a park warden turned activist who recently published a book about a garbage-seeking grizzly that mauled five people in Banff in the early 1980s, killing one.
So how long have bears been coming to dumps? I can remember going to Banff and Jasper as a kid with my parents. What was one of the first things we did? We drove out to the dump to see the bears. We stayed in the car. We watched the bears. No-one got hurt and it was an enjoyable time.
So how long have these bears been coming to this particular dump? How many people were in danger? Why couldn't have fences been built to separate bears from people? There had to be a better solution than this.
A Conklin resident, who wished to remain anonymous, was outraged when he heard the bears were killed instead of relocated. He contacted The Journal.
"It's totally inhumane. We are in their environment, there are no fences, this dump is unmanned, there are no signs to say don't feed the bears ... and everybody goes there to watch them because there's nothing to do up here," he said.
"We are inviting these bears to their death. It's just a total waste. It's a massacre."
No comments:
Post a Comment