Annual cormorant cull in Ontario park cruel and brutal, environmentalists say

Steve Erwin, Canadian Press
May 29, 2006

TORONTO (CP) - Birds with their wings blown off and legs left dangling by a flap of skin are among the "staggering" signs of cruelty environmentalists say they have witnessed during this year's cull of hundreds of cormorants sanctioned by the Ontario government.

The annual cull, which began in 2004, is to reduce the ranks of the large, double-crested birds, which the province blames for destroyed vegetation, depleted fish stocks and fouled water in and around High Bluff Island in Presqu'ile Provincial Park, south of Belleville, Ont.

Critics, however, say the latest cull has resulted in "significant" numbers of birds suffering for days from gunshot wounds before they finally succumb to their injuries.

"Every effort was made to do the cull in as humane a manner as possible," Susan Grigg, park planner for Ontario Parks, said from her office in Kingston, Ont.

Though the birds are shot by Ministry of Natural Resources employees with high-powered rifles equipped with scopes, "it's not possible to get 100 per cent accuracy, so there were some mortally wounded birds," Grigg acknowledged.

She said the wounded "were collected as soon as possible by staff, as soon as it was safe and practical to do so."

Grigg said this year's cull has ended now that the ministry has met its goal of eliminating nearly 3,000 of the birds - significantly less than half of those on the island, where critics say they wreak havoc on wildlife and vegetation.

At a news conference Monday, environmentalists displayed videotaped footage of several birds on High Bluff Island stumbling along shorelines with obliterated limbs. They say it's evidence that wounded birds aren't being euthanized quickly enough.

"It's really more of a bloodbath and a slaughter than any type of proper management strategy for the control of cormorants," said Rob Laidlaw, a biologist who claims he's witnessed dozens of severely wounded cormorants since the shootings began May 15.

Laidlaw, who was out near the island in his kayak Sunday, said he saw some 19 wounded birds, and complained that environmentalists haven't been allowed on the island to document how many more birds might be suffering.

"We found significant numbers of survivors - birds with legs blown off, legs dangling by skin, wings that were obliterated by gunshots. ... Most of these birds will eventually die of their wounds, or they'll starve to death if they manage to survive," Laidlaw said. "It's callous, it's cruel, it's unethical, and it has to be stopped entirely."

Veterinarian Mary Richardson, part of a team of environmentalists trying to document the cull, described the island as a "nursery" for birds that, after the shootings, leaves young birds struggling to survive, their mothers dead in their nests.

But ministry officials say the cormorants are taking away nesting space for another bird, the great blue heron. And the Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters considers the overgrowth of cormorants in Ontario an "ecological disaster" not just for fish, but also for shoreline habitat. "The only option that's left is the culling of some birds, (and) unfortunately, that's not a pretty picture for some," federation spokesman Robert Pye said from Peterborough, Ont. But that's the reality of wildlife management and cormorants need to be controlled the same way we would control sea lamprey or white-tailed deer."

Current cormorant numbers in the province are some 250 times historical population records and are now eating 42 million pounds of fish each year, the federation said in a statement posted on its website.

But Laidlaw said the public would be disgusted if deer were left to die at the park, where periodic culls are performed by hunters to reduce their numbers. "If you saw deer walking around with legs blown off and facial wounds and ears torn out, there would be a lot of outrage," he said.