Editor:
In the Oct. 28 Williams Lake Tribune there is a letter about the wolf kill.
I retired from work near Likely and moved to Penticton after 43 years in the Cariboo.
The wolf kill is not necessary if the people who manage the wildlife resources had any clue as to what they are doing.
First they started printing the regulations for a two-year period.
Then they moved the cow calf season on moose from early October to late November, early December.
The snow has driven most moose to lower valleys by then and hunters on snowmobiles drive up, get off and kill them.
Mostly the cow because she is the largest. The calf dies from starvation or the wolves get it.
A couple of years ago the wildlife branch did an aerial search in special areas of the Cariboo. Where, you ask?
It was in the Likely area. There was about 65 per cent loss of moose in a short time. Moose is the main winter food of the wolf, not caribou or beef cows, although a few years back a bright wildlife program was flying dead winter kill beef out to Spanish and Polley lakes, as well as Quesnel Lake.
I know because I saw them while ice fishing.
The people who dream up these seasons should all be fired. If there are no moose left it’s because of them, not the wolf.
I hunted moose for many years and know they’re hard to find but there is still a long cow, calf season.
Lots of people have signed petitions to have the season stopped but are being ignored by wildlife people who don’t have a clue what they are doing.
If I was a rancher I would shoot a wolf near my cattle.
It’s not the wolf that’s the problem, but the clueless wildlife officials.
Don Agnew
Penticton, B.C.
