216 REPOET OF ONTARIO GAME No. 52 



The necessity for reducing the number of wolves to a minimum cannot 

 be gainsaid, but none the less many objections have been advanced 

 against the lavish use of poison for the purpose, and in fact in this Pro- 

 vince at the present time it is illegal to place poison for wolves where 

 any other game is liable to find and take it. It is claimed that where 

 poisoned meat is placed on the ground, other smaller creatures, such as 

 the mink and fisher and various bird's, will almost invariably be the first 

 to discover it, and that in consequence not only will there be a consider- 

 able destruction of wild life for the sake of a problematical chance of 

 destroying a wolf, but that there will be likely to occur, also, a loss of 

 valuable fur, inasmuch as the smaller fur-bearing animals will more 

 frequently than not suceed in crawling to some little distance before 

 they die and thus escape the notice of the trapper or hunter laying the 

 poison. Even more extravagant assertions in regard to the extent of 

 damage done by poison have been advanced in the case where poisoned 

 meat is placed on the ice towards spring and left there to fall into the 

 water, together with such creatures or their carcasses as may be 

 poisoned thereby, but it would seem that where due precautions are 

 taken in the matter of placing the poison in the meat and in the loca- 

 tion of the bait itself, not only should the destruction of other forms 

 of wild life be comparatively trifling, but waste of fur also should be 

 rendered most unlikely, for the poison can be placed in sufficiently large 

 pieces or quantities as to ensure the almost immediate death of any 

 creature devouring it. 



There can be no question as to the necessity for destro^dng a greater 

 number of wolves annually than is at present effected, for it would ap- 

 pear that in several sections of the Province, at least, wolves are in- 

 creasing. Poisoning is acknowledged to be the only effective method of 

 destroying wolves, but in this Province poisoning musit be held to be 

 practically illegal, although the wolf is not protected against it, for 

 under the Act all such fur-bearing animals as are afforded any form of 

 protection are deemed to be game ; the poisoning of all fur-bearing and 

 other animals classed as game is forbidden; and it is plainly impossible 

 to place poison for wolves where it can by no possible means endanger 

 any of these creatures, and at the siame time be effective. At the present 

 time the law is more or less winked at. If it is necessary to encourage 

 the killing of wolves, the placing of poison should plainly be rendered 

 legally feasible for this purpose, within reasonable bounds. Tlie licens- 

 ing of trappers Avould appear to afford a means of doing so without 

 encouraging the too general use of poison, which cannot but be more or 

 less dangerous to other forms of wild life. If only licensed trappers or 

 Indians holding a permit to trap were entitled to use poison for the pur- 

 pose of killing wolves, and then only in localities where but small harm 

 to other creatures was to be anticipated, there would not only appear to 

 be but little risk of much damage to wild life being effected, but if in 

 addition the claimant to government bounty were required to send in 



