Yesterday afternoon, Cariboo residents gathered at the Williams Lake Tourism Centre to show support for cow and calf moose conservation.
Around 50 people met with the hopes of sending a message to Premier John Horgan and Minister of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development Doug Donaldson.
Dan Simmons, the founder of the Cow Moose Project, and his wife Vivian hosted the event.
“There is another week left before they have these tags open up, and it’s just another message to get it to our Premier to get this hunt shut down for cow and calf moose,” Simmons said. “There’s a lot of people that are totalling against it. Hopefully, it goes directly to him and he gets every bit of what we said. He knows that people up here really want some answers regarding our moose population, our caribou, our predators, there’s a lot of issues, and we are being ignored. There’s no accountability, no consultation with anybody. It’s that they get up here and listen and address it.”
Simmons said that he would want to see the government close the hunt that is set to start on October 1.
“I would like them just to come out and say this hunt will be closed, we are going to take a really good hard look at this, we actually made mistakes, our science isn’t working, and we are going to listen to the voices up here, and we are going to see where it goes,” he said. “I want him to put an end to these 400 antler tags for this year. I want him to put an end to this calf season. The cow and calf moose are not the problems, and our moose population is still in decline, and they still insist to kill the cows and the calves.”
Simmons added that, at the very least, he would like to see the government acknowledging and listen to there concerns.
“We want them to come out and address this. Not next week, not in a month, not after the election, we want to hear about it right now. What they are going to do before it starts.”
Both Premier John Horgan and Minister David Donaldson did not respond to our requests for comments.