Governments Do Nothing As Grizzly Bears Disappear, Group Warns

By THE CANADIAN PRESS

OTTAWA – Two top environmental groups are warning that the federal government is doing nothing as grizzly bear numbers plummet toward extinction.

The International Fund for Animal Welfare and the Sierra Club of Canada say Ottawa’s failure to protect the species could lead to its demise.

In a report released jointly, the groups say grizzly bears have already disappeared from their former prairie habitat, and a draft federal strategy recommends against trying to recover them.

The Northwest population, which includes all of Canada’s remaining grizzly bears, has been scientifically designated as species at risk by the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada since 1991, yet the Ottawa has still not listed the species under the federal Species at Risk Act.

Barbara Cartwright, IFAW’s campaigns manager in Canada, says the federal government’s response to the threat has been "pitiful," while the Sierra Club’s Jean Langlois says Environment Canada has formally condemned the prairie grizzly bear population to extinction.