Norway, Finland, and Sweden are planning a wolf culling this winter. A cull is a selective slaughter of wild animals. These, three European countries are looking for an increase in Caribou population, and since wolves hunt Caribou these three countries plan cullings to eliminate the wolves. These countries also don’t want any harm to their ow

n livestock or citizens. However, wolves do not pose any threat to humans, and tend to stay away from any contact with them. Norway plans to kill 60% of its wolf population, or 51 of its wolves leaving only a maximum number of three breeding pairs. However, the National Resources Institutes of Finland’s research showed that a biologically healthy wolf population should be over 500.
These three countries aren’t the only ones though. Alberta, located in Canada for a decade has been hiring hitman and biologists to hunt wolves to save dwindling populations of Caribou. However, Alberta oil, gas development, and other industrial activities is the reason Caribou are becoming endangered, since it ruins their habitat. They slaughter wolves through aerial gunning, poison, and strangling them with neck snares. The hunters also put a tracker on one wolf, so when the wolf goes to its pack he leads them there. Then the hunters slaughter him and his family. Additionally, neck snares aren’t just killing wolves, but other animals too including Caribou. A total of 676 animals since 2012 have died from neck snares in Alberta.

British Columbia is also killing their wolves, despite the fact that most British Columbians don’t support it. CBC News states, “Regardless, the plan is not supported by the majority of British Columbians. The ministry said that in the, 2021 consultation and engagement process it learned that 98 percent of the 15,196 respondents feel that caribou recovery is important to them but only 42 percent of the respondents from British Columbia were in support of predator reduction.” Thi

s shows, many British Columbians want Caribou populations to go up, but in a different way.
An organization called NOAH in Norway protests wolf cullings. According to prijatelji-zivotinja.hr, NOAH thinks that, “Norway’s wolf management is threatening these wolves and they are just shooting them because some people don’t like them. And it is offensive to hold a species at a critically endangered level.” Other separate organizations in Norway protesting against wolf cullings are WWF Norway and Association our predators.
7th grader Janani Prakash said, “I think that it is wrong that they are killing the wolves. Especially, because s biologically healthy population should be at 5oo.”