A former conservation officer in Labrador is applauding word that Ottawa is suggesting unilateral action to help protect woodland caribou in Quebec and wants to see the same action taken on the Labrador side of the border.
Hollis Yetman of Happy Valley-Goose Bay has long sounded the alarm when it comes to the poaching of caribou in southern Labrador by Quebec hunters.
The woodland caribou herds in the region are so small and so dispersed there are real fears they are facing extirpation (local extinction).
The provincial government has had a ban on the hunting of caribou in Labrador for a number of years, yet each year, animals are being shot and killed.
Yetman says he’d like to see the federal government join the conservation effort in Labrador.
He calls caribou loss in Labrador each year a “perpetual problem” that needs to be addressed. Yetman believes the real problem facing woodland caribou are bullets, which is as significant a problem as habitat loss.