While it is a fantastic place for naturalists and animal lovers like myself to visit, I’m grateful I don’t live in Alberta. It’s a province still in the dank, dark ages when it comes to wildlife management policies (not that the other provinces are all that progressive). Alberta fails to surmount a very low bar, indeed.
Alberta and Saskatchewan are the only two provinces to get federal licensing to use such horrifically cruel and indiscriminate poisons as Compound 1080, strychnine, and sodium cyanide M-44S.
Both provinces are noted for their aggressive culling of wild canids: coyotes and wolves.
And, as I write, attention of many progressive Albertans (they exist; don’t judge the citizens of Alberta by their antiquated wildlife management policies) is focused on the plight of a single small bear cub wandering the fields and woodlots around Calgary, with a bad limp. The little bear may have been wounded in a recent bow and arrow hunt, or perhaps was caught in a trap, or was struck by a bullet, or simply had a deeply imbedded thorn. No one knows. The problem is Alberta’s regressive policy banning the rescue and rehabilitation of bears and an absurdly wide range of other wild animals.
We know from scientific research that bear rehabilitation works, with high survival rates for cubs assisted by proficient rehabbers. We know from such studies as one published two years ago in the Journal of Wildlife Management that bears cared for in this way do not “habituate” to humans, contrary to the claims made by the province. And, we know that just such a facility exists in Alberta, the Cochrane Ecological and Wildlife Reserve Society, which has formulated a working plan to accommodate the injured cub, and has a track record of successful wildlife rehab.
Claims that the bear is somehow better off to recover on his own are nonsensical. Bears need to build up reserves of fat in order to survive their winter hibernation, and an animal as physically compromised as this cub may well have failed to do so, or to build an adequate den.
Dealing with the Albertan government is like negotiating with fossilized Neanderthal bones; they are intransigent. But, there is one faint hope. Last May, for the first time ever, Albertans elected the New Democratic Party (NDP) into power, under leadership of Rachel Notley. The NDP prides itself on being progressive. On the other hand, senior politicians are often too distracted by what they see as the major issues to challenge the regressive policies of wildlife management agencies.
With winter closing in, time is of the essence. It may already be too late, but you can email The Honorable Rachel Notley, Premier of Alberta. In return, you’ll probably get a boilerplate full of platitudes assuring you that all is well, but for the sake of the limping bear cub, at least you will have tried.
Keep Wildlife in the Wild,
Barry