Friday, January 22, 2016

Ron Kerr's recent letter regarding Cranbrook deer cull

Ron Kerr has taken issue with Gerry Warner's open letter to Cranbrook which criticized their latest secret cull, speculating: “I wander (sic) if he gave any thought to the fact that to get those videos they probably had to trespass on private property in the guise of secrecy.”

For two years the BC Deer Protection Society has taken out full-paged advertisements in local papers in several communities asking for permission to enter neighbouring properties to observe the cull, even sending out postcards to 3,600 households in Oak Bay.  Residents have been asked to film permit violations.  During the January 2014 deer cull in Elkford residents contacted the BCDPS with photographs to report a violation of the permit by the contractor Carmen Purdy, who was trapping during daylight hours, necessitating an investigation by MFLNRO.  This January Cranbrook residents observed two permit violations, documented them, and sent video and photographs to our Society.

Ron Kerr made an easy $16,000 when he came to Oak Bay to kill eleven deer in January 2015.  A FOI request reveals that he was the only applicant for Oak Bay's Request for Proposal. The cull was “completed without a hitch” not because of citizen complicity but because the properties chosen could only be secured in a rich municipality like Oak Bay.  Mayor Jensen himself admitted to media that although several residents had offered their properties to traps it was decided that they were not “private” enough.  Only the most affluent of Oak Bay residents could receive taxpayer-funded clover traps.  As evidenced by events in the smaller municipalities of BC, clover trap/bolt gun culls are easily observed, and they are as cruel to residents as they are to deer.

On October 14, 2015 Oak Bay police were called at 7:30 pm to respond to shots fired.  A white minivan with a sliding side door was reported to have pulled up to a small group of deer on a boulevard in the in the tony neighbourhood of Uplands, Oak Bay, and opened fire. 

If violence towards urban wildlife becomes an accepted method to deal with urbanite complaints, we will raise future generations to accept that violence is the way to deal with our problems.  Urban deer culls are affecting many municipalities in BC.  Ron Kerr came to my region to kill eleven deer and left without detection.  It's my hope that this letter will end the accusation that “outsiders” are interfering with local issues. 

Kelly Carson
President, BC Deer Protection Society

Tuesday, January 19, 2016

Former Cranbrook Councilor Slams Current Mayor and Council


A challenge to apologize

E-Know
Published January 19, 2016
Letter to the Editor
Say it ain’t so, Cranbrook city hall!
I still have difficulty believing that mayor, city council and CAO would approve a clandestine deer cull (kill) in-camera without the taxpayers knowledge while telling the public they were going to translocate deer instead of killing them. Then carry out the cull spending taxpayers’ money doing it – and at the same time – accept plaudits from the many opposed to the cull including the Animal Alliance of Canada who offered to donate $10,000 to the translocation program.
Then when their sleazy, deceitful act was exposed in a video – yes, a YouTube video! – by the animal rights people and questioned by the media they stick their haughty noses in the air and say they don’t discuss sordid deeds like this in the media!
But unless the sun has started rising in the west and setting in the east this is apparently what they did. And once again Cranbrook’s name has been darkened from coast-to-coast-to coast. In his play Hamlet, Shakespeare says “something is rotten in the state of Demark.” Well, I’m going to update the Bard and say unequivocally that “something is rotten at Cranbrook City Hall” and it’s time these representatives of the people fessed up.
And oh yes, I have special knowledge of this situation and know how difficult an issue the deer situation is because I was a city councillor myself in the previous administration and foolishly made the same mistake myself of approving a deer cull in-camera without telling the people. But when our council got caught in the act, I admitted what we had done, apologized to the public and condemned council for what it had done starting with myself first.
Never again, I said, and it didn’t happen again during that council’s term. Instead we did surveys and studied the problem, which didn’t do a hell of a lot of good either. But at least we didn’t hide behind the public’s back. So I challenge this council, the mayor and the CAO to do the right thing and apologize publicly to the citizens of Cranbrook for your perfidy. In the circumstances, it’s the least you can do.
Gerry Warner,
Cranbrook

Wednesday, January 13, 2016

Deer Protection Society files complaint

Posted: January 13, 2016, e-KNOW.ca


The BC Deer Protection Society (BCDPS) Jan. 8 filed a complaint to the Minister of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations about incidents involving fawns in clover traps.
“In mid-December 2015, Cranbrook began to cull deer without notification to area residents. The only public notification came from the BC Deer Protection Society and Animal Alliance of Canada in an ad that ran in the Cranbrook Townsman prior to the start of the cull,” the BCDPS stated in a January 12 press release.
“The incidents show the cruelty of the cull, captured through photographs and video footage. Two incidents in particular reveal violations of the terms of the cull permit issued by the minister. Footage for one incident shows a fawn captured in a trap (unedited video documents the fawn pacing for over two hours). The cull contactors arrive, collapsing the trap on the animal and applying the bolt gun. The cull contractors stand and the fawn moves. They apply the bolt gun a second time. The fawn moves again as the contractors try to erect the trap. They drop it and observe the fawn. One contractor starts to reach for the bolt gun but stops. They proceed again to erect the trap and drag the fawn away by the hind leg. In both cases the fawn is seen moving,” the BCDPS described.
“The cull contractor returns immediately leaving the fawn still alive and unattended. A total of six minutes passed between the arrival of the contractors and the removal of the deer (bcdeer.org). Photographs from a second incident show two fawns entangled in a trap that has collapsed on them (pictured above). They remain entangled and compressed for at least two hours prior to the arrival of the cull contractors. It is not known at this time whether the fawns’ struggle was so violent as to dislodge the mechanism holding the trap upright or whether the mechanism was faulty.
“Regardless, no one checked the trap during that two-hour period to end the suffering of these two animals. (bcdeer.org) In the letter to the minister, we urge him in the strongest possible terms to end the cull, conduct a full investigation of the violations of the permit and lay charges where appropriate. In addition, we ask that the permit for the current contractor be revoked until the investigation is complete,” the BCDPS release concluded.
E-KNOW this morning contacted the City of Cranbrook for comment on the contents of the press release.
“Mayor (Lee) Pratt has indicated he doesn’t want to get into a debate through the media with Liz White or the Animal Alliance,” noted city Corporate Communications Officer Chris Zettel.
The BCDPS release is signed by Devin Kazakoff Liz White, Barry MacKay and Sherry Adams.
BCDPS image