A rally is planned in Williams Lake today (Wednesday, Sept. 23) to condemn the moose cow and calf hunt in B.C.
It is anticipated that First Nations chiefs, local hunters, guide outfitters, members of the agricultural community and civic representatives will gather at 11 a.m. outside the Williams Lake Tourism Discovery Centre at 1660 Broadway Avenue South.
For several weeks, Dan Simmons and his wife Vivian have been protesting the B.C. government’s plan to allow for the culling of 400 moose cows and their calves in an effort to starve out wolf populations.
Dan is the creator of the Cow Moose Sign Project which has garnered support since beginning the effort in 2014.
Read more: VIDEO: Cow, calf moose hunt must be stopped: Dan and Vivian Simmons
A spokesperson for the Ministry of Forests told the Tribune last week that recovery of the mountain caribou is a top priority for the government.
“It is a worthwhile trade-off to remove a few moose, a species that’s population is secure throughout the northern hemisphere, if it assists in saving another species — like caribou — from extinction,” spokesperson Tyler Hooper noted in an e-mail.
Licensed hunting of cow and calf moose is concentrated within mountain caribou recovery areas and the slight increase in authorizations for cows and calves will be easily accommodated by the numbers of moose in these areas, he added, noting 88 per cent of the areas occupied by moose in this province have a prohibition on licensed cow and calves moose hunting.
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