Caribou killing continues in closed hunting zone
Last Updated: Friday, November 20, 2009 | 9:51 AM NT
CBC News
Innu hunters have been killing caribou in an area of central Labrador this week that has been closed permanently to hunters to protect the endangered Red Wine caribou. (CBC) Innu hunters continued to kill caribou in a closed hunting zone in central Labrador Thursday, with some hunters shooting at the animals from the middle of the Trans Labrador Highway, as the animals wandered down the road.
It's the second day dozens of hunters from Sheshatshiu were in the area, about halfway between Churchill Falls and Happy Valley-Goose Bay, which has been closed permanently to hunters to protect the endangered Red Wine caribou.
More than a dozen animals were killed during Thursday's hunt.
Wildlife officials said the Red Wine herd has fewer than 100 animals remaining. But Innu hunters like George Nuke believe some of the caribou in the region are part of the much larger George River herd and have migrated to the area.
"How can you tell what is a Red Wine [caribou] and what is a George River [caribou]?" Nuke said to CBC News. "To me, as with our ancestors, caribou is caribou. We don't set boundary lines. How do we know there's Red Wine here? No one has proof."
Dozens of Innu hunters from Sheshatshiu in central Labrador have been killing caribou in a closed hunting zone this week. (CBC) There was tension but no trouble in the same area a day earlier when the hunters were confronted by wildlife officers.
One man was arrested and conservation officers seized the dead caribou, along with a pickup truck.
An assault charge was laid against one of the hunters.
But there was no sign of conservation officers in the area during Thursday's hunting, which was sanctioned by community leaders as a form of protest.
Last year the Innu nation pulled out of a joint caribou management committee. They said they weren't being listened to.
Peter Penashue, the deputy grand chief of the Innu Nation, told CBC News on Thursday morning, before the hunt resumed, that the Innu hunters feel they have to protect aboriginal rights because the provincial government has been arbitrary in its conservation plans.
Natural Resources Minister Kathy Dunderdale said from St. John's that what the hunters were doing is illegal, and she finds their actions troubling.
"Conservation trumps everything. The Red Wine herd is an endangered herd. There's no reason to hunt these animals."
