We are profoundly opposed to…

We are profoundly opposed to the proposal to establish a hunting season for Double-crested Cormorants in Ontario. The duration and extent of this slaughter is almost beyond comprehension, and demonstrates both 19th Century callousness and blatant disrespect for our ecology. The estimated result of such a hunt would result in the wiping out of 1, 500 cormorants per month, and up to 14, 250 cormorants for the entire proposed hunting season.

DRACONIAN MEASURE

This proposal is a draconian reflection of the Ministry’s disregard for the protection of our ecology. It ignores that these birds have already been almost wiped out through hunting on two previous occasions due to persecution by humans and pesticide poisoning. They have only begun to stabilize in recent years. This hunting program would wipe out all previous efforts to stabilize both the cormorants and the ecologies in which they live.

There is no way to kill cormorants humanely. Even past controlled, organized culls have resulted in large numbers of birds being injured and/or crippled and left to die of their wounds, or to starve to death, and this includes, of course, nestlings and fledglings.

NATIVE SPECIES

Double-crested Cormorants are native species. They are not overpopulating the Great Lakes. In fact, their populations are modest, stabilizing, and in some localities, dropping. The entire North American Double-crested Cormorant population is estimated to be less than the human population of Toronto, with about 250,000 in the entire Great Lakes Basin and considerably fewer residing in Ontario. There is no need for a hunt to “manage” them. Therefore, this is not a management strategy, responding to the loudest, most callous voices in our society. To do so would bring about government-fostered cruelty, and would lead to unbelievable suffering and death, and, in short order, extinction, all for the entertainment of those who demonstrate no compassion for non-human sentient beings. Their voices should be being countered by science!

NOT SUPPORTED BY SCIENCE

Science-based evidence by the Canadian Wildlife Service has repeatedly found that only 2% of cormorants’ diet is derived from commercially-viable species. Rather, these birds’ diet consists of environmentally-beneficial consumption of primarily invasive fish species such as alewives and round gobies, as well as other non-commercial, non-forage species. Clearly, it is commercial fisheries’ overfishing which is depleting fish populations, not the fish consumed by cormorants.

As well, anyone who knows anything about the environment knows that nothing in nature is ever destroyed. It is simply used as transformative material, as life renewal. Cormorants are a necessary and beneficial part of the cycle of nature. Their excrement, which initially kills some trees, is rich in nutrients and results in new plant and animal life. Their guano is part of nature’s renewal, part of the change and evolution of ecosystems, part of the interdependence of species. Cormorants have a valuable role to play in their environment.

In addition to the environmental need for cormorants, they are part of an interdependent dynamic within their ecology, and their slaughter causes havoc whenever it occurs. The process of killing the cormorants will cause other bird species to vacate the colony sites they share, while the presence of cormorants benefits other colonial water birds, such as federally protected herons, egrets and pelicans, all of which are stable or growing populations wherever cormorants are found.

Furthermore, the number of trees that die in colonial waterbird colonies across the province is extremely low and wouldn’t even equal the number of trees in a single medium-sized woodlot, and would not come near to matching the number of trees cut down in one day by Ontario’s logging industry. To blame these birds for ecological destruction, when the composition of vegetation in and around bird colonies is vibrant, healthy and dynamic, is a blatant lie. Humans are causing ecological destruction and losses, not cormorants.

EASY TARGET FOR THE CRUELTY-MINDED

Double-crested Cormorants are vulnerable to hunters in many ways. They are larger birds, so are easily seen. They are black, a colour which seems to be viewed by the superstitious as evil. They congregate in colonies to nest on exposed islands and peninsulas (only about 3% of potential island sites in the Great Lakes are suitable.) And because of their grouping behaviours, small congregations could be wiped out in a just a few minutes or an hour, while larger colonies could be destroyed in just a few days or a week. Years of effort and thousands of dollars to recover the species would be lost in a few days. Furthermore, since this proposal runs right through migration periods and nesting intervals, and since parent birds are such good protectors of their little ones and try against all odds to protect their babies, they make the epitome of vulnerable prey for the hard-hearted. In addition, their migrations also make them an open target, a time of total vulnerability to those who enjoy killing. So what this proposal does is increase an appetite in the most cruel of our human population for uncontrolled murder.

This kind of cruelty has already been witnessed in Ontario. Cormorant-haters have already attacked colonies under cover of night, destroying nests, stomping on chicks, and killing adults. There have been no repercussions for this cruelty. And once the proposed changes to the law come into effect, people will be given free reign to destroy and maim as many cormorants as they want. It wouldn’t take long for people to wipe out most cormorants in the province, leaving perhaps a few small groups of their population in a few protected areas, driving them to near extinction or worse in Ontario. And with the gene pool basically gone, the remaining birds would be highly susceptible to disease and early death. Is this how Ontario treats its native wildlife?

In light of the above, it is aggregious that this Government’s proposal would allow 50 birds to be killed at a time, day after day, week after week, month after month, by the same person, with no requirement that the “meat” be used. This is cruelty beyond cruelty. And it is ecologically disastrous for our Province’s natural balance. It is disgusting, and will become Ontario’s shame! We did not vote for this!

DESIGNATION AND CONTAMINATION FROM CARCASSES

The proposed designation of cormorants as game animals, along with a non-utilization exemption which allows the carcasses to rot should be an affront to every ethical hunter who believes in fair chase, ethics and sportsmanship. And the contamination of the places where these killings occur will only further pollute our land and water.

UNSUPPORTABLE CLAIMS

The mass killing proposed by this government is a political response to unsupportable anecdotes, unsubstantiated claims, and complaints by a small group of radical fishermen, supported by special interest groups. There is no scientific support for their claims, and as such, in the name of ecology, should be ethically disregarded. Rather, they should be presented with facts and the MNRF should respond according to the facts on behalf of all Ontario’s citizerns.

CONCLUSION

In summary, this hunting season for Double-crested Cormorants must NOT GO FORWARD. Ontario citizens are not cruel. They value all the wildlife in our ecology, they recognize interdependence among species, and they do not wish to legalize the wholesale, uncontrolled slaughter of cormorants, leaving behind a trail of wounded adults and young left to suffer and die in their nests as their parents are killed above them or trying to find food for them. Ontarians value watching migrations and migratory birds, and they value our native species and ecologies. They appreciate our wildlife in all its diversity. Their appreciation comes from both science and compassion, and, as such, they DESERVE TO BE HEARD, AND THEIR WISHES HONOURED. Most important, MNRF policy should reflect the will of the majority, based on science, not just the loudest, least scientifically-supportable voices! If it continues not to do so, the MNRF should be privatized to the users who pay fees for licences, and a proper, citizen-based provincially-funded ministry set up to address environmental (including wildlife) protections and climate change.

Rather than using these native birds as a scapegoat for all that humanity is doing wrong, this government should be addressing the issues which actually do affect fish populations and aquatic environments, including pollution, shoreline and habitat destruction and “development”, overfishing, climate change, and other issues created by, and exponentially increasing because of, human activity.

PLEASE STOP THIS PROPOSAL FROM GOING FORWARD.

THANK YOU.