getasheep
02-21-2008, 09:11 PM
http://www.edmontonsun.com/News/Alberta/2008/02/21/4866901.html
Fish & Wildlife shoot scores to curb disease
By DANIEL MACISAAC, SUN MEDIA
A pile of slaughtered deer is seen just north of Dilberry Lake, near Chauvin, Alberta in this photo taken Tuesday. (Supplied photo in link)
Ron Tizzard had to see it for himself – an eight-metre deep pit filled with the headless bodies of scores of freshly slaughtered deer.
“There was a pit that they’d got that was supposed to be just the bones and carcasses going in,” he told Sun Media today of the pit near Chauvin, 260 km southeast of Edmonton. “And there are some animals in there that are just the heads cut off, and the rest just thrown in.”
A bison rancher, Tizzard is one of many people living around Provost, just south of Chauvin, outraged at the nature and the scale of the cull being conducted in a bid to stop the spread of chronic wasting disease (CWD) from Saskatchewan.
Tizzard as well as businessmen and members of the Alberta Fish and Game Association offer a number of complaints about the way the cull is conducted, including that it targets more animals than necessary, upsets the natural balance, threatens tourism, spooks livestock and, by involving strategies like Fish and Wildlife staff shooting from a helicopter, resembles poaching.
“I’ve hunted all my life, and that’s why it disturbs me so bad,” said the 61-year-old. “This hunting area will never be the same; I know it won’t.”
Even though questions remain about the effects of CWD, Dave Ealey, a spokesman for Sustainable Resource Development, argues the province’s efforts to curb it are science-based. He says the numbers targeted – the complete eradication of deer within a 10 km-circle where CWD is discovered – and the methods used are necessary.
“This is not a hunt, let me make that clear. This is a cull,” he said. “This is disease management.”
But while Ealey says deer numbers are high, he said it’s also difficult to track the numbers that are culled.
And he conceded that as those culling efforts intensify, the amount of healthy meat donated to Friendship Centres, food banks, communities and families has decreased proportionally.
And that’s a waste, according to people like Battle River-Wainwright Conservative MLA Doug Griffiths, who locals credit with helping block extension of the cull to include an ecological reserve north of Metiskow.
“The challenge the department has is it’s hard to pull all of those elements together,” he said. “But I’d like to see them apply more effort and ensure all of the animal is used, and that area residents are utilized better and we have enhanced populations to keep the herd healthy.”
Fish & Wildlife shoot scores to curb disease
By DANIEL MACISAAC, SUN MEDIA
A pile of slaughtered deer is seen just north of Dilberry Lake, near Chauvin, Alberta in this photo taken Tuesday. (Supplied photo in link)
Ron Tizzard had to see it for himself – an eight-metre deep pit filled with the headless bodies of scores of freshly slaughtered deer.
“There was a pit that they’d got that was supposed to be just the bones and carcasses going in,” he told Sun Media today of the pit near Chauvin, 260 km southeast of Edmonton. “And there are some animals in there that are just the heads cut off, and the rest just thrown in.”
A bison rancher, Tizzard is one of many people living around Provost, just south of Chauvin, outraged at the nature and the scale of the cull being conducted in a bid to stop the spread of chronic wasting disease (CWD) from Saskatchewan.
Tizzard as well as businessmen and members of the Alberta Fish and Game Association offer a number of complaints about the way the cull is conducted, including that it targets more animals than necessary, upsets the natural balance, threatens tourism, spooks livestock and, by involving strategies like Fish and Wildlife staff shooting from a helicopter, resembles poaching.
“I’ve hunted all my life, and that’s why it disturbs me so bad,” said the 61-year-old. “This hunting area will never be the same; I know it won’t.”
Even though questions remain about the effects of CWD, Dave Ealey, a spokesman for Sustainable Resource Development, argues the province’s efforts to curb it are science-based. He says the numbers targeted – the complete eradication of deer within a 10 km-circle where CWD is discovered – and the methods used are necessary.
“This is not a hunt, let me make that clear. This is a cull,” he said. “This is disease management.”
But while Ealey says deer numbers are high, he said it’s also difficult to track the numbers that are culled.
And he conceded that as those culling efforts intensify, the amount of healthy meat donated to Friendship Centres, food banks, communities and families has decreased proportionally.
And that’s a waste, according to people like Battle River-Wainwright Conservative MLA Doug Griffiths, who locals credit with helping block extension of the cull to include an ecological reserve north of Metiskow.
“The challenge the department has is it’s hard to pull all of those elements together,” he said. “But I’d like to see them apply more effort and ensure all of the animal is used, and that area residents are utilized better and we have enhanced populations to keep the herd healthy.”