This is not a hunt, this is…

This is not a hunt, this is a slaughter. This is not a hunt, it’s an extermination program.

Allowing this killing throughout the nesting season is unconscionable, especially as cormorants share their nesting space with many other species, and this will disrupt their nesting season as well. Also, there is bound to be accidental kill of non-targeted species since they share the same space and since it can be difficult to distinguish cormorants from herons in the air.

This slaughter is being advocated for by fishing and hunting organizations based on faulty assumptions about the cormorants impact on fish stocks — concerns that have been largely discounted. Others raise complaints that their guano kills vegetation around their nesting sites. While this is true, this is part of the natural cycle and when they move to new nesting areas, the previous ones recover.

Cormorants are inedible, so hunters won’t even be able to eat what they kill. In fact, the MNRF also wants to ease restrictions on “spoilage” meaning that hunters will be able to just shoot the birds and leave them where they fall, injured or dead. As they intend to allow this slaughter during the nesting season, the young will be left to starve in their nests.

This inhumane plan must be stopped.