Death Down the Alley
There is little that is more vexing to me than a useless death – a death for a life unfulfilled or a death for no good reason. Now you are probably thinking about death from addiction or some young person felled by a rare disease but no, what I am thinking of is animals that are killed by police or conservation officers for just being animals.
Bryce Casavant, former Port Hardy Conservation Officer must also be wondering if police and CO’s may be a little too quick on the draw when it comes to dispatching “problem” wildlife. Casavant ran into trouble when he refused to kill a pair of young bears when someone complained about them so he decided to try and find out if the problem was more an itchy trigger finger than a problem with wildlife. He speculated that many CO’s were associated with the culture of hunting and perhaps tended to view wildlife as an economic asset to be exploited and killed or as a danger to life or property instead of a resource to be nurtured and appreciated. At any rate, I can’t help but feel there is a far too cavalier attitude to killing wildlife that could cause a problem – especially predators. Between 2011 and 2019, 4341 black bears, 162 grizzlies and 780 cougars were killed. That is a lot of lives lost for what I think could be rather flimsy reasons. Of course you cannot know for sure and the officer always must err on the side of caution when human life is involved. But how often is it really? Are there not better, more humane methods of dealing with problem wildlife?
When I lived in the West Kootenay Region, bears were a constant presence and if you let your guard down, they could quickly become problematic. Ted Rutherglen was the Nelson CO. He got very tired of having to almost constantly kill bears so he began tranquilizing them and transporting them away from where they were causing a problem. I sometimes helped him out. He attached a tranquilizer dart to a ski pole then climbed up the tree to stab the bear with the dart. When the bear came down, it was moved into a trap then re – located. Eventually, the dart could be fired with a rifle which saved Ted a few scraped shins. The bears never bothered Ted but they usually showed up in the same places again somewhat chagrined but still an issue. The bears were usually black bears but sometimes he had to deal with grizzlies. On one occasion he had to shoot two young grizzlies in Kokanee Glacier Park. The National Ski Team was training on the glacier in the summer and they befriended the bears who started to hang around. I had friends on the team and they told me the bears were very friendly and were even ridden by some of the kids. Somehow the Fish and Wildlife Branch got word of this and Rutherglen was ordered to dispatch these beautiful young bears or find another occupation. This was very hard on him but he eventually complied under protest.
For awhile, trapping and relocation became very common. However, it wasn’t as easy as it may have seemed and many if not most returned. I remember trying to catch a bear near Kaslo for about a week without success. We finally had to buy a side of bacon to get him in the trap.
Traps can be hard on animals especially if long trips on rough roads are involved which they often are. When you do figure a spot you can pretty well bet that another resident animal will be there and your animal will have to crowd its way in or try to find another space or go back home. Sometimes you separate parents and siblings and the list goes on.
Another factor may be the way the Conservation Officer Service is set up. Prior to about 1980, the service was part of the BC Police or the BC Fish and Wildlife Branch. I can’t say much about the BC Police time but I do know about the Fish and Wildlife Branch/ Ministry of Environment days. At that time, the CO, s were part of a team of biologists and technicians and were not directly wedded to issues of enforcement and wildlife control. Most of the CO’S were involved with habitat inventory and management, regulation formulation and public education. The job was more conservation oriented and had more variety.
I remember that many of the CO’s of the time were not completely comfortable with the variety of the tasks and some just wanted to be bush cops. They constantly lobbied for special uniforms and side arms. More police things than conservation things.
I have lost contact with today’s Conservation Officers but I occasionally come in contact with “Natural Resource Officers”. They tell me they do environmental enforcement and don’t have much contact with CO’s. In the early seventies, he CO’s were the face of the environment and well known in the communities they worked in. Most would do whatever they could to avoid killing problem wildlife. Is today’s Conservation Officer a different breed? A few years back I lived in Lake Cowichan on Vancouver Island, a place with an about normal degree of bear human conflicts. It got so the people of The Lake refused to call the CO’s or RCMP about a bear because the bear almost always got shot.
There has to be a better way. I know live in Port Alberni another place with a normal supply of bears. They are in our yard a lot and we have noticed that those that get scared off in their initial contact are very careful about sneaking back and flee easily. I wonder if it would be possible to condition bears to stay away with an aggressive dog, bear bangers or other frights. If these things were combined withal the other safety suggestions or regulations, it may be possible to save a few animals.
Ted Burns
July 18, 2020
Tags: death not needed