Letter to the Editor by Karin Walkey – Crysler Ontario – In Defense of Coyotes, Wolves, and Sled Dogs in BC – March 13, 2011

I am a country girl, and CEO of a company in Embrun, who pays substantial personal, property and corporate taxes. I am responding to Mr. Van Dusen’s article about the wolf and coyote cull and  would like to add my voice to the animal activists and ratepayers who are defending the coyotes and wolves from what could turn out to be a national embarrassment – I refer to the recent slaughter of sled dogs in BC.
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If the rest of the civilized world knew that there are contests being held in the region surrounding the nation’s capital where animals are being slaughtered for prizes, people would be outraged. I am!  And I do not support the cull.
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But then again, I don’t support shooting dogs that happen to trespass on my property disturbing the peace, tranquilty and safety of my property and animals or of myself for that matter. I say that because just a few years ago, I was downstairs washing clothes on the most beautiful, peaceful Spring morning when I  suddenly heard a commotion of yelping, squawking and hissing. I literally flew outside into total chaos and confusion.
Six or so hunting dogs were chasing my animals and barking non  stop – and there were no owners in tow. I added my voice to fray, howling and yelling at the top of my voice while I chased the dogs off. Fur and feathers were flying everywhere, cats were running up trees and my little hen was nowhere in sight, I feared the worst. But at no time during this fray, even when I believed that my little chicken and my two geese had been killed, did I even consider that those dogs should be harmed. They were just being dogs and I didn’t hold that against them or the hunters, for that matter, even though I don’t support hunting.
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I’m not immune to the pain and frustrations of the farmers who lose livestock to coyotes, wolves and other predators. I, too, have lost my beloved pet chickens, cat companions and pet geese to predators, My pets were like family members and I was heartbroken that I couldn’t save them. But I would never want to harm the predators for trying to survive just as i would never shoot a dog that wandered onto my property.
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Living in the country comes with a price. Farmers can’t control the weather, and sometimes they can’t control predators. We are encroaching on the territory of these animals and they have nowhere else to go.
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Coyotes and wolves are just trying to survive much like we humans. If we can tolerate only the ups of country life and not the downs, the option is there to move to the city. The 2500 bounty, the shot gun prize, proceeds for the gala dance and various other prize monies associated with this unkind event, would be better spent funding a humane solution to the problem and helping sheep farmers like to defray the costs of good animal husbandry. In fact if the organizers of these events decide to create humane community events to help the farmers, they can count on my support. I’ll even rustle up support, volunteers and ideas. But it boils down to live and let live.
Karin Walkey  – Crysler, Ontario 

With the support of many friends in both Ottawa and Toronto and family in Calgary

(Comments and opinions of Editorials, Letters to the Editor, and comments from readers are purely their own and don’t necessarily reflect those of the owners of the Cornwall Free News, their staff, or sponsors.)

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11 Comments

  1. Karin…thank you for taking the time to put pen to paper or shall I say fingers to keyboard to voice your concerns. I whole heartily support your viewpoint.

  2. Karin Walkey is one country girl who rocks! Thanks for printing this great letter bringing together a number of issues of concern to many Canadians. For those interested in taking action on the sled dog massacre in BC, check out the excellent in depth report on the industry on Lifeforce Society’s website. The report recommends banning the industry. Emails can be send to christy@christyclark.ca, the new premier of BC, copy your letter to lifeforcesociety@hotmail.com For those opposed to the cruel coyote killing contests, please join Wildlife Ontario on facebook or join the Wildlife Ontario yahoo groups discussion. If you want me to send you the links for any of those send me an email at roslyncassells@yahoo.ca We need people to send emails to Dalton McGuinty opposing the coyote bounties, his email is dmcguinty.mpp.co@liberal.ola.org – copy your letter to webmaster@wildlifeontario.ca Thank you for covering this issue, and hope to see many more about animals in this newspaper.

  3. Karin Walkey speaks for the large number of Ontarians that are letting the McGuinty government know this is not the kind of Ontario we wish to live in.

    Coyote predation in this province represents only 1% in relation to the number of sheep produced and 0.08% in cattle produced. Pretty insignificant when you consider that small businesses, many of which are as economically challenged as farmers, experience up to 3% in lost profits annually due to theft and get no compensation from government.

    Predation is cyclical. Compensation payments are a small price to pay for protecting biodiversity in Ontario. None of us own nature. We all share a responsibility for protecting it.

    Coyote killing contests are not only ineffective in solving any perceived problem, they are negatively impacting Ontario’s reputation, dividing communities and putting people and their pets at risk.

    Donna DuBreuil
    Ontario Wildlife Coalition

  4. I gotta feeling coyote killing is going to be a moot point. I don’t know how it happened but somehow, 40 years ago, groups of Raging Grannies and bare foot hippies with flowers in their hair lost all the arguments against nuclear power. They had some pretty good points to make too. Most of them regarding the surprising and unseen hand of Calvin. The grown ups yelled at us to cut our hair and get with the program. Bob said, “Beware of leaders, watch your parking meters.” I think time is up, watch out for the trade winds, get a lead foil jockstrap. If we’re going to have a fake carbon tax, I guess we should have a fake radiation tax.

  5. Author

    Apologies to everyone as our spam filter has been catching some non spam posts of late.

  6. Breaking under reported News. Reactor 1 and 3 had been storing spent nuclear fuel rods for the past 40 years. The nuclear waste was never properly disposed of in the past. Reports of 600,000 spent rods. Thousands of rods blown sky high. Google, radiation maps – they vary considerably.
    ——————————————————————–
    “And we will all go together when we go
    Every Hottentot and every Eskimo
    When the air becomes uranious
    We will all go simultaneous
    Yes, we all will go together
    When we all go together
    Yes we all will go together when we go.” Tom Lehrer

  7. Willie, I tried that frequency on a couple of radios, and there was pretty much no reception.
    On the internet, all I found was WWCR (World Wide Christian Radio) that only broadcasts insane rantings about Jesus and hell and stuff like that.
    Are you sure that 12160Khz is the correct frequency?

  8. Yeah, Furtz. Thanks for reminding me. It’s 12160.0 KHz. Yeah it’s WWCR but they rotate a variety of radio shows as they are an independent broadcaster selling air time. The one I’m talking about is on from noon to 4pm from Monday to Friday. It’s not even remotely theological. Bring an extra pair of shorts because it is a free speech show. The insane religious rantings are on before and after that.

  9. Hey what! I went to the pharmacy today. I asked for potassium iodide pills. She said, “None of the drug stores in Cornwall have any. Our wholesalers don’t have any.”

    The funny thing was, that as soon as I got the first sylable out, she was shaking her head. Guess I’m not the first. So…uranium is legal but weed isn’t. It’s total and complete evil fools that run our society, is that it?

    Lets hope and pray that our elite and their children have some potassium iodide pills..

  10. I love coyotes. While the bounty is too low, it provides me with enough money to get all the Canadian Club that I need. Have Karin call me if she sees any coyotes and I will come over an collect them. Thanx again Karin.

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