Animal Justice, alongside Wolf Awareness, WeHowl, Humane Society International/Canada and Animal Alliance of Canada and a coalition of 17 animal and environmental protection groups, has filed a Notice of Objection asking the federal government to reverse a decision to continue to allow the use of the cruel predacide, Compound 1080, to violently kill wolves and coyotes in Alberta.
Earlier this spring, Health Canada’s Pest Management Regulatory Agency (PMRA) ended the use of another horrific predacide, strychnine, used also to kill wild predator animals. This huge victory was a direct result of advocacy from Animal Justice, Wolf Awareness, and other organizations who successfully asked the PMRA to reconsider its proposal to allow the continued use of strychnine.
Unfortunately, in that same decision, the PMRA allowed the continued use of Compound 1080, an indiscriminate, highly toxic “super poison”, used to kill wolves and coyotes suspected of preying on livestock. Alberta is the only province where Compound 1080 is still used, even though these wolves and coyotes exist across the country and there are more effective ways of managing and preventing conflict between farmed animals and predators.
Compound 1080 is an extremely lethal chemical which causes severe and prolonged suffering to animals who consume it. Victims may experience vomiting, convulsions, intense pain, and hallucinations. They can suffer for hours or even days before they finally succumb to the poison, dying from cardiac failure or respiratory arrest.
In Alberta, Compound 1080 is put in meat baits and left out on the landscape where they can be consumed by wolves, coyotes, or unintended victims including endangered species and domestic dogs. Because it can take hours or days for a poisoned animal to die, their bodies can be scattered great distances from where the bait was laid. The bodies are scavenged by other animals who can then suffer the same gruesome death due to secondary poisoning.
In their Notice of Objection, filed under the Pest Control Products Act, Animal Justice and partner organizations are asking the federal Health Minister, Mark Holland, to establish a panel to review and reverse the PMRA’s decision to allow the continued use of Compound 1080.
A reversal of this decision would prevent needless suffering and would be supported by much of the Canadian public. A national Environics poll commissioned by Wolf Awareness, Animal Alliance, and Animal Justice showed that 69% of Canadians find the risks associated with predacides like Compound 1080 in wildlife management programs unacceptable.
No animal deserves to die the horrific death caused by predacides like Compound 1080. Join Animal Justice in the fight against cruel predacides and join our mailing list below.
