Legal action launched against B.C.'s wolf cull

A British Columbia environmental group has launched a legal petition alleging the provincial government's wolf kill to save caribou is breaking federal and provincial laws.

Pacific Wild Alliance wants a B.C. Supreme Court to declare that the province doesn't have the authority to use a helicopter to hunt wolves under the Wildlife Act and Canadian Aviation Security Regulations.

The petition to the court, filed early this month, says it wants a judge to quash any permits issued for the wolf cull.

None of the claims have been tested in court, and no one from the B.C. government was immediately available for comment about the legal action.

A recent study by Raincoast Conservation Foundation and the universities of Alberta, British Columbia, and Victoria said the wolf kill in Western Canada has had "no detectable effect'' on reversing the decline of endangered caribou populations.

The petition says it wants the court to clarify the law as it applies to the killing of a vulnerable wolf population in B.C.