Canadian Wolf Hunting Method

[BigHornRam]

Reward in wild horse shootings now $3,000

A reward offered for information leading to the shooter of wild horses in the Central Alberta foothills has increased from $500 to $3,000.

Bob Henderson, a spokesman for the Wild Horses of Alberta Society, said donations from concerned individuals and businesses has increased his organization's original reward offer.


Three wild horses were discovered shot on New Year's Day in the foothills west of Sundre.
(Courtesy Wild Horses of Alberta Society)
"We have a beautiful, wild, living symbol of our past running free in our hills," he said. "In my own heart, I don't know who would be so ruthless to do something like that."

Discovered on New Year's Day
Henderson was in the foothills west of Sundre with his wife Doreen on New Year's Day when they came across the carcasses of two foals and a mare that were already scavenged by wolves.

"My wife cried for a long time. We had recognized two of the foals lying dead. We had taken pictures of them in October and my wife named them. So it was really, really upsetting for us."

A total of 16 wild horses have been killed in the area since 2004, he said. Henderson, who suspects one shooter is behind the deaths, said the RCMP and provincial wildlife as well as forestry officials are investigating.

The horses are on Crown forest land, but cattle can graze in the area in the summer, he said.

"Some individuals think the horses eat all the grazing, others use them as wolf bait so they can lure in the wolves, so they can shoot the wolves."

Wild Horses of Alberta Society has been lobbying the government to pass legislation to better protect the horses.

 

[noharleyyet]

...kinda makes a corn spinner look tame.

 

[Tom]

They shot three of them at once???!!! Geese, two foals and a mare, the other two probably didn't want to leave after the first was shot, eh?

 

[BigHornRam]

If the horse's were scavenged by wolves, how do the horse huggers know they were actually shot? It's still under investigation so this article completely relies on the horse huggers word. How would the horse huggers feel if wolves were actually responsible for the death of the horses? Would that change the way they feel? Does prior naming of the horses make the deaths even more tragic? What about the wolves that are named by the wolf huggers...would killing one of them be equally tragic? Hunting wolves over a wolf killed cow is popular and effective way to hunt wolves in Canada. Is hunting them over a dead horse bad? Is calling in a wolf to shoot bad? Is trapping one bad? Are Canadians bad? Would the French consider shooting a horse to use for wolf bait, waste of meat? Lot's of questions here.

 

[Washington Hunter]

Hopefully the "shooter" or someone like him will do the same down here. I know Oregon and Nevada could greatly benefit if somebody were to reduce the horse population a bit.

What good are wild horses?

You can't eat e'm, and you can't ride 'em.

Wild horse killers should be rewarded.

 

[Washington Hunter]

Oh, I guess I should say that I am kidding when I say hopefully somebody will do the same in Oregon and Nevada. But I do wish the laws would be changed so that killing them would be legal. Heck, sell tags and let people hunt them. I bet horse meat isn't bad. Or, better yet, have government employees kill them all. Who needs 'em?

 

[BigHornRam]

Here's a Missoula lady that thinks trapping wolves is bad.

Barbaric practice is animal cruelty

It's time for our Legislature and wildlife agencies to quit pretending that we're still living in the 1800s. Demographics have changed in the West and so have moral values. Citizens of states such as Arizona, Colorado and Washington have addressed the issue of animal cruelty by banning the practice of trapping.

The people of Montana need to realize the dangers posed by traps to our pets, our children and our protected species.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Web site, www.fws.gov/mountain-prairie/species/ mammals/wolf/, demonstrates the inherent cruelty and lack of consideration for protected species. Keep in mind that trappers reported these incident. One has to wonder how many incidents occur where protected species and pets get caught and killed in traps and are not reported.

Over the course of seven weeks between Oct. 20 and Dec. 8, 11 wolves were caught in traps set to kill other species. Four of the 11 wolves were released by state or federal authorities; two escaped (probably with the trap still attached to a leg); four wolves were killed while in the traps; and, lastly the report from the week of Nov. 12 to 17 reads as follows: “The wolf that was incidentally caught in a coyote trap near Helmville and collared by MFWP on the 9th died later that evening, presumable from stress and poor body condition related to being in the trap for up to five days. MFWP thanked the coyote trapper for reporting the incident ...”

It's time for the people of Montana to speak up against the barbaric and archaic practice of avocational trapping. Express your concerns to your legislative representative and to the director of Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks, Jeff Hegener.

Anja Heister, Missoula

 

[280]

washington hunter, round those ponies up and ship them to Texas, hell those Texans will hunt anything, get SCI to figure out a way to score them and Tom would have a horse to go with his cow

 

[powderburn]

Alberta's wild horse herd threatened by killer, government policy
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

at 17:55 on January 12, 2007, EST.
By JAMES STEVENSON

CALGARY (CP) - Wild horses roaming Alberta's western foothills are facing eradication due to an unknown killer and a government-sponsored capture program, says a group trying to protect them.

Sixteen horses have been shot within the last two years and left to rot in forested Crown land about 130 kilometres northwest of Calgary. The most recent include three mustangs found dead on New Year's Day west of Sundre.

Frustrated by the lack of progress in stopping the killings, the Wild Horses of Alberta Society is offering a reward that has climbed to $4,500 this week thanks to supporters from across Canada.

Society spokesman Bob Henderson says the Alberta government wants the horses out of the area.

"We believe they want them eradicated from their natural environment," Henderson said Friday.

The province believes the "free-ranging" horses are primarily descendants of domestic horses that were used in logging and outfitting operations throughout the vast and unpopulated foothills region in the early 1900s.

Through the years, there have been various attempts to round up the horses. The society estimates that as late as 1985 there were more than 1,000 feral horses while today that number is believed to be less than 200.

Adding to the decline is Alberta's "horse capture regulation," which allows licence-holders to go on government land and track down the horses.

Henderson said he's heard of one roper who's caught more than 13 horses this year alone and has no intention of stopping until the capture season ends in March.

The majority of those horses are sold to slaughter for about $300 per head, he said.

Between the horses shot and those being captured, the number in the wild herd is unsustainable, Henderson said.

"If we've got 20 per cent of the horses caught or shot out there already, how long does it take before you decimate the viable gene pool of horses?"

Because the horses are not considered either livestock or wildlife, they fall under the auspices of Alberta's Sustainable Resource Development Department. The new minister, Ted Morton, could not be reached for comment.

But department spokesman Dave Ealey said illegal hunting or killing of the horses is a Criminal Code offence, though no one has been charged.

Ealey said he doubts tougher penalties for horse killers would help solve the case.

"I don't know if that would give us a better chance of finding out who these people are," Ealey said from Edmonton.

Cpl. Dave Heaslip, the RCMP's Edmonton-based livestock investigator, said there are a number of possibilities as to who is shooting the horses.

"It's a very big area and we've got lots of alternatives," Heaslip said.

"You've got individuals who've got grazing leases, and horses do eat more grass than a cow ... and if a horse is eating the grass, it's costing them money."

Another possibility is that the dead horses are used to bait wolves that may be preying on grazing cattle.

One 30-calibre bullet was found under a carcass and will be compared with other bullets from other scenes, Heaslip added.

The wild horse society believes someone with "a real hate-on" for horses is behind the killings, but Ealey said other animals have met the same fate.

Over the same two-year period, upwards of 14 moose and a number of elk have also been poached or shot and left in the same area.

Henderson said he doesn't blame fish and wildlife officers, who are understaffed and underfunded. But he hopes the higher reward money might trigger a break in the case.

"We're just hoping that somehow, some way, somebody will say something. If we can just stop this individual, we can still keep going after the government for changes."


©The Canadian Press, 2007

 

[BigHornRam]

At least you guy's can legally reduce the population of the horses, and collect a couple hundred bucks for it up there Powderburn. Down here our hands are tied by laws pushed by the horse huggers. Send the horses to slaughter, or dump them for wolf bait....either way they still end up as dog food I guess.

 

[powderburn]

Four more wild horses found dead near Sundre
Dan Singleton, For The Calgary Herald
Published: Wednesday, January 24, 2007
Four more feral horses have apparently been shot and killed on Crown land west of Sundre, police say.

The horses -- two adults and two colts -- were found lying in pairs about 200 metres apart on Tuesday morning.

Members of the Wild Horses of Alberta Society discovered the dead animals on public land off a pipeline roadway.

Sundre forest officer Rick Smee went to the scene Tuesday afternoon.

"I couldn't find any evidence of it right now, but I will presume they were shot," said Smee, noting wolves have eaten most of the remains.

He estimates the animals were killed in late December or early January.

Three other horses -- a mare and two younger horses -- were found shot and left to rot on Crown land Jan. 1.

The four horses found Tuesday were about six kilometres west of the original three.

RCMP Cpl. Dave Heaslip is leading the investigation into the shootings.

"This looks like it's our shooter again," said Heaslip. "I'm really hoping somebody will give me a call on this."

Heaslip said he has received numerous tips about the earlier shootings. He is now asking for tips on the latest shooting.

Twenty feral horses have been shot and left to rot in the area west of Sundre, about 120 kilometres northwest of Calgary, since September 2004.

The Wild Horses of Alberta Society is offering a $6,500 reward for information on the shootings.

"It's just sick what is going on," said society president Bob Henderson.

 

[Ten Bears]

I know what's going on up there. Some wolf hugger has started his own winter feeding program.

That anti-trapping lady sure does speak clearly for Missoula though.