The Travesty of Caribou Conservation: When Wolves are Made to Pay the Ultimate Price
“When it comes to wolves, it’s not about numbers. It’s about family. A wolf is a wolf when it’s part of an intact, unexploited family group capable of astonishingly beautiful and complex cooperative behaviors and unique traditions.” Gordon Haber
Across the world, wildlife has been under siege despite our growing recognition and appreciation of animal sentience. In British Columbia, the ostensible narrative to protect caribou herds from extinction has become a convenient smokescreen for an insidious agenda: the systematic extermination of wolves, one of the most intelligent and social animals. The government-sanctioned predator reduction program has unleashed an annihilation of wolves from the air and on the ground. The extent of the carnage is horrifying. Since 2015, at least, 8,084 wolves have been gunned down from helicopters, hunted, and trapped. Even more abhorrently, extermination tactics have used “Judas wolves” to locate their packs and wipe out their family members. 8,084 is just an official number, and the true extent of the decimation is likely much higher. As Pacific Wild states, “countless wolves are legally killed by hunters and trappers with no mandatory reporting in effect and in many cases no bag limits.”
This cruelty will not end soon. The media article that discusses the recent research on the effectiveness of caribou recovery by culling wolves concludes that “the slaughter of hundreds of wolves […] will likely have to go on for decades.” Like stubborn weeds, wolves must be eradicated repeatedly. There is no way around it, the researchers involved in the study imply, downplaying, at the same time, their affiliation with the government and dependence on its funding. Indeed, this alliance between the government and researchers doing its bidding puts forward a convenient agenda that allows for the unabated destruction of the caribou habitat and makes wolves pay the ultimate price.
Even climate change has been used to even further conspire against wolves. According to another just released research study on the threats of climate change, rising temperatures might extend the range of white-tail deer into caribou territory. “That means killing more wolves,” the study’s lead scientist casually mentions. This is it. No matter what, indefinite, permanent violence against magnificent beings is in the cards.
In the absence of public outrage, this unconscionable scenario prevails. Still, let’s assume for a moment that the indefinite killing of wolves is necessary for saving caribou from extinction. It is a false premise, but let’s consider it from a moral standpoint. Once we do that, one fact becomes irrefutable: caribou are sentient beings, and so are wolves. Both suffer, experience joy, mourn, and love. One is not superior to the other, and they have an equal right to exist. And, yet, to supposedly save caribou, the BC government has authorized the killing of countless wolves now and into the future. Such disproportionality in suffering contradicts the utilitarian principle that we must not harm many to save the few. Instead, sound moral guidance demands acting in ways that cause as little suffering as possible.
A beating heart belongs to an individual sentient creature. A given animal’s rarity or its endangered status does not enhance its intrinsic value in comparison to the animal that is not endangered. On an individual basis, both animals — in this case, the caribou and the wolf — suffer equally, regardless of their numerical status as a species. After all, a species is an abstract concept, but suffering is not. Only a sentient being, rather than a species, can experience harm. Consequently, Marc Bekoff argues “killing certain individuals in order to protect or ‘save’ other […] species isn’t permissible.” This unjustified, preferential treatment manifests itself as speciesism, a discriminatory approach that arbitrarily considers some species worthier than others. In the case of caribou preservation, speciesism signifies that the caribou has a greater value than the wolf.
A greater value for whom, however? For us humans, the answer must surely be, because protecting caribou from extinction rests on the premise that future generations of humans will be able to enjoy watching the species. Anthropocentric benefits, yet again, trump everything else. They even justify the unlimited infliction of suffering on wolves.
This atrocity cannot go on. If we discard a human-centric approach, we will concede that wolves are more than a part of the aggregate whose function is solely instrumental. Intelligent and emotionally complex, they are an end in themselves, as Kant would say about humans. Indeed, if anything, the suffering experienced by wolves in BC should prompt us to consider extending Kant’s moral theory to other sentient beings with whom we coexist on this planet.
Intrinsic worth is all that matters; it is all that should matter. Anguish and pain are not an acceptable price to achieve an external goal. Deep down, we know it and we feel it. The recent public outrage over the suffering of the tortured wolf in Wyoming fleshed out the abstraction of a kill. This is what the large-scale extinguishing of sentience looks like, one wolf at a time. This is what we have allowed our government to engage in. We have done so because our failure of imagination prevents us from seeing the suffering of one wolf multiplied by countless others. Indeed, nowhere is the chilling callousness of the fate that has befallen the wolf more absurdly expressed than in the words of the researcher quoted in the media: “It’s not the wolves’ fault.” What does it even mean? Are we supposed to feel better knowing that wolves do not deserve the death sentence to which they were condemned?
The bloodshed must cease. It has stained the forests and our own hands.
In the end, as is often the case, both the oppressor and the victim lose. Perceiving nature through the prism of its cruel and ignorant management comes at a cost that we will have to pay. Destroying wolves destroys us as a society. It diminishes us. We might be deluding ourselves that we are saving caribou, but in the process, we are losing our humanity. The appreciation and compassion for the natural world have evolved throughout centuries and have been molded into moral and ethical principles. We break these principles at our peril.
The bloodshed must cease. It has stained the forests and our own hands. As argued earlier, the main argument for killing wolves is to ensure that the caribou will still be there in the future so our children and their children can watch them roam the land. Given the ongoing habitat destruction, it will not happen, no matter how many wolves we decide to kill. But even if the demise of the caribou were to be somewhat temporarily postponed by the merciless “recovery” plan, what then? Should we tell our children how many generations of wolves we have killed to accomplish this? Should we tell them that what they see is the legacy of killing fields?
“We cannot and must not continue to spill the blood of other species because it’s convenient and supposedly gets the job done….[The] world becomes what we teach, and so we must focus attention on teaching children the values of compassion, generosity, nonviolence, and respect for others.” Marc Bekoff
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I extend my thanks to Nicoline Mann for having agreed to share her powerful Wolf painting and sketches with me for this article.
Nicoline Mann, a multidisciplinary artist based on beautiful Vancouver Island, Canada, works on the traditional territory of the Snuneymuxw First Nation in Nanaimo, BC, Canada. With a deep love for wildlife, her work draws inspiration from the beauty of nature and the majestic animal kingdom. To view more of Nicoline’s artwork, visit her website at www.nicolinemann.com
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TAKE ACTION.
Please support the efforts of Pacific Wild that continues to call on the provincial government to take urgent action to end the wolf cull, and immediately protect and restore caribou habitat.
Share your thoughts. Let Premier David Eby know what you think. Call, email, or send the pre-written letter: https://shorturl.at/suzG4
Phone: (250) 387–1715
Email: premier@gov.bc.ca
References:
Bekoff, M. (2024). The Emotional Lives of Animals: A Leading Scientist Explores Animal Joy, Sorrow, and Empathy — and Why They Matter (Updated edition). New World Library.
Dickie, M., Serrouya, R., Becker, M., DeMars, C., Noonan, M. J., Steenweg, R., Boutin, S., & Ford, A. T. (2024). Habitat alteration or climate: What drives the densities of an invading ungulate? Global Change Biology, 30, e17286. https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.17286
Holleman, M., & Haber, G. (2013). Among wolves: Gordon Haber’s insights into Alaska’s most misunderstood animal. University of Alaska Press.
Johnson, P. (2024, May 11). B.C. wolf cull program targeting wrong issue, wildlife protection group says. Global News. Retrieved from https://globalnews.ca/news/10490612/bc-wolf-cull-killing-critics-pacific-wild/
Lamb, C. T., Williams, S., Boutin, S., Bridger, M., Cichowski, D., Cornhill, K., DeMars, C., et al. (2024). Effectiveness of population-based recovery actions for threatened southern mountain caribou. Ecological Applications, e2965. https://doi.org/10.1002/eap.2965
Pacific Wild. (2024, May 8). Press release: Newly released figures reveal number of wolves killed in B.C. approaches entire wolf population estimate. Retrieved from https://pacificwild.org/press-release-newly-released-figures-reveal-number-of-wolves-killed-in-b-c-approaches-entire-wolf-population-estimate/
Santiago-Ávila, F. J. (2024, May 2). Persecution, torture and senseless death: the grim reality of being a wild carnivore in the US. People•Animals•Nature. https://medium.com/@panworks/persecution-torture-and-senseless-death-the-grim-reality-of-being-a-wild-carnivore-in-the-us-85c7e7001051
Weber, B. (2024, April 29). Climate change, not habitat loss, may be the biggest threat to caribou herds: Study. Time Colonist. Retrieved from https://www.timescolonist.com/indigenous-news/climate-change-not-habitat-loss-may-be-biggest-threat-to-caribou-herds-study-8669231
Weber, B. (2024, April 23). Large study shows caribou herds in Alberta, B.C., growing from wolf culls, cow pens. Time Colonist. Retrieved from https://www.timescolonist.com/national-news/large-study-shows-caribou-herds-in-alberta-bc-growing-from-wolf-culls-cow-pens-8638852
