Earth is in a mass…

Earth is in a mass extinction event. It is now time for human beings to stop killing. We need to respect the sacredness of all living things and element that sustains life here. The Government of Ontario is proposing a "hunt" of double-crested cormorants that could easily eradicate this important, ecologically beneficial native waterbird from most of the province.

The Government is proposing to:

▪ designate double-crested cormorants as a “game” species,
▪ create a province-wide annual hunting season from March 15 until Dec 31,
▪ allow anyone holding a valid Ontario Outdoors Card and small game hunting license to kill up to 50 cormorants per day (1,500 per month or more than 14,000 per season), including nesting parents,
▪ place the number of cormorants that could be legally killed at 2.7 billion (based on the number of small game hunting licenses Ontario issues annually), even though only about 125,000 cormorants exist in the province and,
▪ allow the carcasses to spoil (i.e., rot).
The Government’s proposal would have numerous terrible consequences to wildlife and natural ecosystems in Ontario including, of course, the wholesale, uncontrolled, impossible to monitor, slaughter of cormorants.
The Government says it is responding to concerns about too many cormorants, depleted fish stocks and environmental damage. But those concerns are largely just anecdotes, complaints and unsubstantiated claims that were debunked long ago.
In reality, cormorants are not overabundant, their numbers are relatively modest, have stabilized and are dropping in some areas. The entire North American double-crested cormorant population is estimated to be less than the population of Toronto, with only about 125,000 birds in the lower Great Lakes. Cormorant numbers on the US-side of the border have already dropped (naturally) by 30% or more.
The Ontario governments proposal is not science or fact based. It is emotional and political and could result in wiping out cormorants in most of the province.