A trapper has shot and killed the wolf-dog cross that had been stalking pets and livestock on Bowen Island, just north of Vancouver.

Allan Starkey, 72, from Maple Ridge, lured the dog out of the woods with beaver castor, coyote bait and a carcass it had just killed and shot it earlier this week.

Islanders blamed the dog, that was nicknamed the Beast of Bowen, for killing dozens of dogs, cats, sheep, geese and deer, and feared it might go after a child at some time.

Starkey, who is better known as Trapper Al, said the killing had to be done, but the animal was killed immediately by a single shot and did not suffer.

"It wasn't afraid of people, and all it was doing was damage, just killing everything," said Starkey.

Many on Bowen, including a local veterinarian, believe the dog was once a pet, and then abandoned on the normally idyllic island.

Starkey said the animal weighed 42 kilograms, and could easily take down island deer and pets on its own to survive.

"I could barely lift it into my truck he said.

"The people were getting so afraid that they couldn't walk their kids or their dogs or anything because it had killed so much livestock and they figured the next thing would be a child because it was coming in closer and closer to people all the time," he said.

He said it was the first wolf he had encountered on the South Coast, but because it was part dog it was not as scared of people, as a real wolf would have been.

"It would not have had the fear of a real wolf…. It starts to come in. It just gets tamer and tamer," he said.

"I would have expected in a month or so, some little child would have been killed," he said.

News that he had shot it brought out islanders to see the beast that had terrorized the island.

"Everyone was really happy, almost like it was Christmastime," he said.