Below is my latest letter regarding pack dogs. I know I've asked my friends way too many times to send in your own letters but I'm asking again. We have a new minister of ESRD and he needs to hear from pack dog supporters. Even if you just take a few seconds to say you support pack dogs it would help the cause a lot. The addresses to send it to are below. Just copy and paste them into your email. Thanks for all the support everyone...it is making a difference. I've done a ton of newspaper, radio and magazine interviews this week.
Dear Honourable Kyle Fawcett:
I am writing to you as a voter in Alberta and a pack dog proponent that has been a victim of broken promises and bureaucratic shuffle both by your predecessors and your staff for the past five years. It is my hope that with Mr. Prentice's promises of a new government, that our elected officials' words will actually mean something, especially when uttered in the most sacred of all political venues, the legislature. As the new Minister of ESRD, it now falls on your shoulders to clean up the mess left by your predecessors and to get control of a staff that is guided more by personal agenda than the direction of the Minister and the wishes of Albertans.
For the past five years I have been involved in a campaign to have pack dogs legalized in Alberta and during that time I have been told by your staff that they were working diligently on it, Ms. McQueen responded to Ms. Blakeman's question in the legislature regarding pack dogs with, "
Mrs. McQueen: Yeah. I was actually surprised, hon. member. For those that don’t know about it, with regard to the pack dogs that actually just wasn’t allowed. So what I’ve directed the April 15, 2013 Resource Stewardship RS-299 department is: this is something that’s just common sense and that should be allowed, and let’s get moving on this. I was surprised that that didn’t happen already. It’s something I certainly wasn’t aware of. When those that were advocating for it brought it to my attention and to the ministry’s attention – in my mind it’s a nobrainer, and let’s just move on it," and Minister Campbell posted on his FaceBook page, "I've received a number of messages requesting the use of pack dogs for hunting. I personally don't see an issue with it and it makes a lot of sense.
We are in the initial stages of consultations to review and renew all the regulations in the Wildlife Act … including those governing the use of pack dogs.
Unless we hear some strong opposition during these consultations, we will be allowing hunters to use pack dogs.
The change would allow big game hunters to use dogs to carry supplies while still prohibiting dogs from being used for hunting."
Yet, despite all these assurances that pack dogs will be permitted, your staff recently responded to the Calgary Metro News with "Duncan MacDonnell, a public affairs officer with Alberta Environment and Sustainable Resource Development, said the province plans to revisit the law through a series of public consultations over the next nine months but currently the evidence isn’t conclusive when it comes to dogs and bear safety.
“Some experts suggest the presence of a dog can reduce bear encounters while other say that, in certain situations, the presence of a dog can antagonize a bear,” he said."
How did we go from this being a no-brainer to this? There is an obvious disconnect between your staff and the direction of the Minter. I would be very keen to see this evidence that a trained pack dog can antagonize a bear. I've supplied your department with reams of anecdotal evidence regarding pack dogs reducing human/bear conflict and I have seen nothing to the contrary from your staff. I read nothing more into Mr. MacDonnell's comments than yet another attempt to bury this issue in a pile of bureaucracy. The facts are that pack dogs are permitted in every other North American jurisdiction that has mountain hunting opportunities, there are no documented cases of a hunter accompanied by a pack dog being mauled or killed, dogs are already permitted in the same area with hikers, bird hunters and cougar hunters and according to your own staff this law was never intended to apply to pack dogs but only to pursuit dogs.
This change has the support of Alberta's largest conservation organization, the Alberta Fish and Game Association and during the past five years, hundreds of letters and emails have been sent to your two predecessors from Albertans in support of this change. I have done several radio, newspaper and magazine interviews recently regarding this issue and I have written about it in my own magazine columns. The recent tragic death of Mr. Cross drives home just how dangerous the mountains can be, especially for a solo hunters. The power is in your hands to save future Albertans from a similar fate. I have sought legal advice that says this change could be made immediately without opening the Wildlife Act but your staff seems to disagree. To me this is just more bureaucracy at its finest but if that is indeed the case, the power is within your hands today to issue a Ministerial Order of Non-Enforcement and allow Albertans to use pack dogs immediately, increasing their safety. How many more people must die?
Your staff seems to find time to further personal agendas like banning spears and atlatls but they can't seem to make time to increase personal safety for Alberta hunters despite Minister McQueen telling them to make it happen immediately. There is something wrong here.
I've attached a backgrounder on pack dogs to help you better understand this issue and I've attached a couple letters from pack dog users in the NWT and Yukon that really drive home the increased safety these dogs bring to the mountains.
Thank you for taking the time to review this material.
Yours truly,
T.J. Schwanky
esrd.minister@gov.ab.ca; highwood@assembly.ab.ca; Edmonton.Centre@assembly.ab.ca;
Danielle.Smith@assembly.ab.ca; draytonvalley.devon@assembly.ab.ca; west.yellowhead@assembly.ab.ca;
travis.ripley@gov.ab.ca; minister.energy@gov.ab.ca; ron.bjorge@gov.ab.ca; premier@gov.ab.ca;
calgary.klein@assembly.ab.ca
