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Old 10-09-2018, 06:17 AM
Marty S Marty S is offline
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I cannot pretend to be an expert on such a matter so... I just quote one instead. Mark Downey, from the Fur Harvesters Auction. I have a letter pulled off the Canadian Trapper Forum. There's also a newspaper article out there somewhere, also written by Downy, I'll try to find that and post that as well.



http://www.trapper.ca/cnta/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=13006&p=126697&hilit=algonquin #p126697



February 8, 2018
SAR Recovery Section Species Conservation Branch
Public Input Coordination
Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry
Policy Division, Species at Risk Recovery Section, 300 Water St.
Peterborough, On, K9J-8M5

RE: EBR Registry Number 013-1813
Public Input Coordinator:

SUBJECT: Request for additional information to be considered in the recovery strategy for the Algonquin Wolf under the Endangered Species Act.

Here please find attached several articles I have written over the past 20 years on the topic of Ontario’s “Brush Wolf, Coy wolf, Eastern Wolf, “ As well I have authored articles for magazines and delivered lectures at MNR organized and sponsored meetings on this topic.
The organization I work for is supported by a membership list of 20,000+ trappers across North America that ship fur here. I have been a registered trapper for 40 years and began my life’s career in the fur business in 1981 with the Ontario Trappers Association after having graduated from Sir Sanford Fleming College of Natural Resources. Since 2001 I have been the Chief Executive Officer of the International Fur Auction in North Bay, Fur Harvesters Auction Inc.
Once again I am responding to the MNRF on the wolf/Coyote/Hybrid protection issue as I have done so most of my adult life to no avail. I personally dealt with Dr. Theberge and his wife Mary years ago when they met with me in my office claiming the wolves they were studying in Algonquin Park were a rare Red Wolf dynamic. I was a member of the Wolves of Algonquin Provincial Park Population and Habitat Viability Assessment (PHVA) conference in Dorset Feb.15-18 2000. Dr. Theberge was present at this gathering as well. At this conference I personally show cased 100 brush wolf pelts that I took from our auction house. All were bar coded with proof of origin. The pelt locations ranged from Nova Scotia across Quebec, Ontario Manitoba, Yellowknife NWT and into Maine, New York State, Michigan and Minnesota. A dozen pelts were from townships butting Algonquin Park. When laid out and displayed Dr Theberge could not identify which skins were the specie he was pushing to protect as they ALL had the same exact characteristics. Yet he succeeded in getting all abutting townships around the park protected from wolf, coyote harvesting. I had a trap line in one of the townships commandeered by this moratorium and gave it up with the log camp I built on this trap line because the government’s decision took away my ability to manage it. Twenty years later few beaver remain and dried dead ponds make up much of the landscape. This agenda continues with Brent Patterson of MNRF as his research has him successfully changing what was a hybrid Red wolf 20 years ago being studied by Theberge. It is now being claimed a new species and naming it the Algonquin Wolf”.
Meanwhile, our MNRF biologist leading the charge on protecting this Hybrid is supported and funded by Earth Rangers(Bring back the wild), World Wildlife Fund, The Friends Of Algonquin Park, Wildlife Conservation Society Canada, W. Garfield Weston Society Canada.
Princeton University in New Jersey has conducted research that has CONTRADICTORY findings to MNRF research. In fact Princeton states that Ontario Researchers biased their own findings by not looking at the whole DNA Genome which includes Dog DNA. MNRF never mentions this and takes the road of junk science to forward their agenda.
If further protection is granted this HYBRID will see a great many professional trappers lose their ability to manage their lines as I did. Beaver populations will plummet due to uncontrolled Hybrid predation. Nothing in this great country produces more value per acre of land than an ACTIVE beaver colony. As all ungulates, waterfowl, aquatics in vast numbers all depend upon and flourish because of their existence.
Further advancement of this agenda will cripple Ontario’s wildlife diversity as never before seen. This provinces trappers provide a tremendously needed and valued service and their right to earn a living will be seriously compromised by this decision. These will be professional trappers holding registered trap lines and their names on title in Queens Park for being responsible by law to manage them in accordance to MNRF game and fish act. This will have an enormous financial impact as well on all Registered and Resident trappers with each passing year as wildlife numbers fall.
Our provinces deer and moose herds will plummet to numbers never seen and they are in trouble NOW. The spring bear hunt cancelation was a testament to how bad it is to allow emotion and animal rights groups to drive a decision into law. It took over a decade for our government to see the mistake it made and bring back the spring bear hunt. I ask you, were Ontario`s moose numbers better prior to the cancelation? The Wildlife Management Units( WMU ) being looked at to further increase protection of this hybrid wolf now only offer 1 or 2 adult moose tags and deer numbers are tremendously LOW. Prior to the spring bear hunt cancelation these units issued strong numbers of adult moose tags. Canceling the spring bear hunt was a BAD decision but it still allowed this top predator to be hunted in the fall. It took years to bring about the return of Ontario`s spring bear hunt and only after moose numbers fell drastically enough to shock the public and human /bear conflicts rose to dangerous levels.
This protection strategy has this Hybrid being protected ALL year long and this is to include wolves and coyotes which are running around together free to pound down all wildlife populations they wish. Once these wild resources are depleted domestic live stock will be targeted and family pets. This is in fact happening now without this hybrid being further protected.
For over two decades we have seen this agenda being pushed forward by emotion and now bad science and it is clear the government does not care to listen to those that make their living from the bush and depend on its resources to feed their family`s.
Fur Harvesters Auction Inc is owned 50/50 by Native and Non Native trappers and it is my intention to lobby both sides aggressively setting up a war chest of funds collected through lobbying our 20,000plus members. I am confident there will be a ground swell of support on launching a legal suite against this government’s action to protect this Hybrid specie. Ontario`s trappers cannot afford to be impacted anymore by laws driven by fake science, emotion and special interest groups.
Fur Harvester Auction Inc. will be directly impacted if this comes into law and areas of protection are broadened as it will greatly impact the amount of fur bearing animals at auction. We currently sell the majority of Ontario`s production. With each passing year less beaver, mink otter and muskrat will be produced by our trappers that share ownership in this company. The outdoor community is fed up and it is clear from the great number of responses to an article I wrote May 4th 2017 in a northern news paper. In fact of the vast numbers responding 100% were in full agreement and this speaks volumes as there was not a single comment against.
I am confident that the tens of thousands of Ontario`s hunters and farmers will line up to support this cause financially once the trappers have it launched and the media releases our message.
Respectfully

Mark Downey
Chief Executive Officer
Fur Harvesters Auction Inc.




Looks like lotsa pretending going on. Left unchecked, it could happen here too with some other made up species. American Badger perhaps? American Kitt Fox?
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