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To start this show, our co-host Darren tells us about the latest protest at the Greater Vancouver Zoo last weekend, which he participated in.
Tommy Knowles and Emily Pickett, Wildlife Defence League, on the BC Wolf Cull, and Trophy Hunting
Our first interview is with Tommy Knowles and Emily Pickett, co-founders of the Wildlife Defence League, which a local non-profit organization whose mission is it to defend wildlife in British Columbia from exploitation while abiding by international conservation law and laws set out by First Nations.
In January 2015, the government of BC announced it would be culling wolves from helicopters in an effort to save endangered caribou herds from extinction, and it went forth with this cull for two months last year. Now the hunt is back for 2016, while wildlife conservationists call this action unscientific, inhumane and expensive. The Wildlife Defence League is currently actively working a campaign against the kill, as well as trophy hunting in general. (You can listen to an interview we did about last year’s wolf cull here.)
From on site in the South Selkirk region, where they are working to monitor and expose the wolf cull, Tommy and Emily tell us about their current endeavours and give us an update on the wolf kill as it stands for 2016.
The Wildlife Defence League also campaigns against trophy hunting, and a couple of weekends ago, Emily made her way to Saskatoon, SK to protest against a touring Africian trophy hunting show. She also tells us about her experiences at this recent event. The CTV news story that Emily was featured on about this demo can be seen here:
Adam Wilson, Director of Investigations, Last Chance for Animals, on Marineland Beluga Investigation and Bill S-203 to End the Captivity of Whales and Dolphins in Canada
Our feature interview is with Adam Wilson, who is the Director of Investigations of the animal advocacy non-profit organization Last Chance for Animals. LCA is dedicated to eliminating animal exploitation through education, investigations, legislation, and media attention. The organization believes that animals are highly sentient creatures who exist for their own reasons independent of their service to humans, and that they should not be made to suffer for the latter.
Last fall and summer, LCA conducted a five-month undercover investigation into the animal entertainment facility Marineland Canada, located in Niagara Falls, ON, with a primary focus on the park’s beluga whale population and the conditions under which they are being held. Tying into a new bill that has just been presented to the Senate (Bill S-203, which just had its second reading in Parliament this week) to end the captivity of whales and dolphins in Canada, the findings of this investigation have just been released, and Adam tells us about it.
He tells us about the history of Marineland and how it was started back in 1961, the deplorable living conditions that the belugas were found to be kept in, concerns about the “disturbing inadequacies” of the care for the whales, Bill S-203, and what Canadians (and others) can do to ultimately end the captivity of whales and dolphins at Marineland, and in the rest of Canada.
A petition to show support to Senator Wilfred Moore for Bill S-203 to ban cetaceans in captivity in Canada can be found and signed here.
And here is a 5 minute video that summarizes the findings of the Marineland investigation:
