“For bid: the smug satisfaction of shooting a wild mountain sheep ram in B.C. outside of the regular hunting season. Expected selling price: upwards of $250,000 US.

That is what the B.C. government is offering this weekend at a conservation fundraising auction during the annual convention of the Wild Sheep Foundation in Reno, Nev.”

Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/news/government+auctions…

My letter to the editor:

Auctioning right to shoot wild sheep is woolly headed

Re: B.C. government auctions off chance to kill a wild sheep, Feb. 2

Let’s see if I’ve got this straight. The provincial government is giving the highest bidder a chance to carry out a cold-blooded, calculated execution of a magnificent and defenseless wild mountain sheep.

And it’s being justified in the name of “conservation fundraising.” Doesn’t anyone see the irony here? I suggest solutions without bloodshed, but perhaps that’s too radical a thought.

Carmina Gooch, North Vancouver

http://www.vancouversun.com/opinion/letters/taxes+from+concern…

These traps are not selective. They can and do pose a threat to many animals, including non-target animals such as eagles, ravens, deer, moose, family companion animals, and so forth. We have at least one example of a dog caught in a snare set by Yukon conservation officers – yet this remains hush, hush.

Gordon Klassen, the president of Alberta’s trappers’ association, was in Yukon recently teaching wanna-be wolf killers – pardon me, wolf “harvesters” – how to trap and kill many wolves.

Mr. Klassen was quoted saying, “You can catch a pack of wolves,” but he was also quoted as saying, “It can only be done if it’s done humanely, ethically and sustainably.” Mr. Klassen: there is no ethical, humane trapping. Traps are, by their very nature, cruel and inhumane.

It doesn’t surprise me that according to the article, two conservation officers attended this cruel session. And they say they don’t like to kill? Really?
Mr. Klassen … enough, already, using barbaric, cruel and inhumane methods destroying the lives of animals that deserve to have their own lives to themselves. Check your calendar. This is not 1812, and we should have evolved by now.

The fur belongs to its rightful owners – the wildlife.

Please boycott fur products. Thank you!

- Mike Grieco, Whitehorse, Yukon