Wolf bounty debated
By Richard Blanchard

A request by a Tiny Township resident to bring back bounties for killing wolves in Simcoe County sparked a mixed reaction at the county's corporate services committee recently.

Bob Grexton, in a letter forwarded from Tiny council, said that he had lost sheep to wolves and wanted the return of a bounty system to reduce livestock loss from the animal.

Corporate services chair Doug Little said that he remembered when the local municipalities had the option to offer bounties on wolves and that this authority had been taken away by the province.

Little wondered if it should be the role of the county to offer bounties when it might be better served by the local municipality.

"I'd hate to see the county take on this role," he said.

Clearview mayor Ken Ferguson said that he had mixed feelings about wolves.

"They certainly do a good job of cleaning up after dead animals and keep the population of other nuisance animals. But they are known to attack livestock," he said.

County CAO Mark Aitken said that wolves appear to be on the rebound in the county due to the increased number of wild turkeys and deer.

"It seems to be a cyclical thing," he said.

He noted that the bounty system seems to have gone out of vogue in the western Canadian provinces.

The provincial wolf bounty was ended in 1972 in Ontario though municipalities continued to offer bounties into the 1990s.

The committee eventually decided to send the letter to the Simcoe County Federation of Agriculture for comment.