British Columbia’s Supreme Court has ruled against an environmental group seeking to overturn the province’s controversial wolf-killing program.
Contractors hired by the BC government have killed hundreds of wolves annually since 2015, as part of a program to help conserve threatened caribou herds.
In most cases, wolves are shot from helicopters.
The environmental group Pacific Wild Alliance filed a judicial review of the program in 2020, arguing that the province gave regional wildlife managers too much authority with too little direction to issue permits to slaughter wolves.
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The group also argued that the program was illegal because it conflicted with federal aviation regulations that prohibit the use of firearms from aircraft.
In a June 6 ruling, British Columbia Supreme Court Justice Christopher Giaschi concluded that while Pacific Wild was entitled to defend the case, it did not prove that the province’s program was illegal.
The sporadic and situation-specific nature of where and when culling occurs, it ruled, justified the wide latitude given to managers in issuing permits.
“The Cabinet cannot prescribe by regulation the species subject to aerial slaughter since this will depend on the wildlife issue that has been presented. Similarly, the Cabinet cannot be expected to prescribe by regulation the geographic area of the hunt, as this will depend on where in the province the problem has arisen,” he stated.
“The same concerns apply to the type of aerial hunting allowed, the hunting period and the number of permits required. This all depends on the circumstances that have arisen.”
The conflict between the program and aviation regulations around firearms was not an issue, it ruled, as long as the contractors in the slaughter get federal exemptions, it ruled.
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“We still maintained that the wolf killing program was illegal,” Rebeka Breder, the animal rights attorney who defended the Pacific Wild case, told Global News on Thursday. “It’s based on faulty science, it’s unethical, it’s inhumane, whatever.”
“The way they’re worded now doesn’t provide enough guidance to officials who issue permits to kill wolves by air, but unfortunately the court disagreed with us and essentially found there is enough guidance.”
While the court ruled that the culling can continue, Breder said it marked a legal milestone as a potentially unique case of wild animals, or those advocating on their behalf, having had a day in court.
“If there is anything positive about this decision, it is that the court agreed with Pacific Wild that we have the right to speak for wolves in the courtroom, and they gave us four days of court time to argue this case, which has to As far as I know, it hasn’t been done before,” he said.
“Hopefully Pacific Wild, an environmental organization, being able to speak on behalf of the animals will help other organizations that want to secure legal action from the government.”
Breder also noted that over the course of the litigation, the province revised its permit regulations and began ensuring that participants in the massacre had federal exemptions.
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“We don’t see this happen very often where an organization or an individual starts a lawsuit and then something happens during the litigation to make the system legal, and that’s exactly what happened here.”
According to the province, woodland caribou are at risk of extinction in British Columbia due to habitat loss, along with the resulting change in predator-prey dynamics. The southern and boreal mountain populations of the species are listed as “threatened” and the northern mountain population is listed as “special concern” under the Species at Risk Act.
The province has also engaged in habitat protection and herd planning and augmentation, but says those measures will be ineffective without additional protection from predators.
In February, the province moved to extend the program for another five years.
In April, the province told Global News that 280 wolves were killed under the program last winter and more than 1,700 have been killed since the program began.
“Predator reduction helps caribou recover and is based on science and sound wildlife management principles,” the Ministry of Land, Water and Resources Management said in a statement at the time.
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