According to the Alberta Sustainable Resource Development (SRD) website, the vision of SRD is that Alberta’s lands, forests, fish and wildlife will benefit present and future Albertans.
So why is SRD forbidding wildlife centres in Alberta from saving more than 20 species of animals? Apparently, cougars, bears, moose and mountains goats do not “benefit present and future Albertans.”
Under SRD orders, these injured animals - including Alberta’s official mammal, the bighorn sheep - are to be turned over to Fish and Wildlife within 72 hours to be released back into the wild without treatment, or euthanized depending on the extent of their injuries. Smaller, weaker animals aren’t even given that chance. According to SRD, bats, skunks, deer mice, racoons, toads, salamanders and frogs (excluding the threatened leopard frog) are to be euthanized on site.
The government’s chief justification for these killings is protecting the public from disease or injury. The other justification for killing these animals or letting them die in the wild is that in wildlife centres, they may become habituated to humans.
Neither argument makes much sense.
Regarding disease, this policy creates an even larger danger to the public. If residents know bringing these animals to a wildlife centre will result in their death, they will try to take care of the animals themselves. Untrained, unvaccinated people trying to care for a bear in their backyard or a salamander in their bathtub face a much larger risk than trained professionals who know how to handle these creatures.
Regarding habituation, each and every wildlife institution already must follow guidelines to prevent animals from becoming tame in order to receive a permit to operate.
Despite this, the government still wants injured, treatable animals left in the wild to suffer or starve. We feel this is inhumane. Taking away trained professionals’ ability to help these injured creatures is cruel and unnecessary.
Wildlife centres are not funded by any level of government and rely solely on donations to stay afloat. If the organizations are forced to kill animals instead of save them, they could easily lose the donations that keep their doors open.
This is another example of the provincial government ignoring common sense and what the public wants. Only this time, it is innocent animals that are suffering at the hands of politicians and their bureaucracy.
