AR-News: (CA) Birds to Be Shot Dead - media release

[Barry Kent MacKay]

Animal Protection Institute
Peaceful Parks Coalition

For Immediate Release

Thousands of Birds To Be Shot Dead at Presqu'ile Provincial Park.

Toronto, March 5, 2004: This week and with much fanfare, the Ontario
Minister of Natural Resources, David Ramsay proudly announced his decision
to permanently protect the wolves of Algonquin Park, stating predator
species play a key role in the balance of nature.

But also this week, Ramsay quietly approved the shooting of thousands of
Double-crested Cormorants, an impressive and skillful avian predator of the
Great Lakes aquatic system. Top of the food chain predator, cormorants are
often referred to as the wolves of the aquatic system, and also play a
critical role in balancing natural ecosystems.

"The ecological difference between cormorants and wolves is zero," says
Barry Kent MacKay of the Animal Protection Institute. "They are equivalent
in their role as top predators.  The only difference is that recreational
anglers hate cormorants because they are viewed as competitors for sport
fish."

Thousands of Double-crested Cormorants arrive each summer to Ontario from
the United States to nest and rear their young before migrating south again
for the winter.  Presqu'ile Provincial Park is home to thousands of nesting
cormorants and reflects one of the greatest migrations on the continent.

Minister Ramsay insists the congregation of thousands of birds is destroying
unique vegetation and must be culled.

"The rationale for this cull is not to protect rare vegetation," says
AnnaMaria Valastro of the Peaceful Parks Coalition. "Cormorants are by
nature colonial birds and have nested in large colonies since the beginning
of time.  The impact their nesting colonies have on local vegetation is a
natural process, critical in the formation of soil and the regeneration of
plants and trees."

"Shooting cormorants is to placate recreational anglers," says Valastro.
"This was clear when David Ramsay chose to announce his decision at the
annual conference of the Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters, and
before making a public announcement."

"If you understand that all creatures play a key role in the balance of
nature, then you can't pick and chose which predators receive protection and
which ones are shot dead, says MacKay.

-30-

For more information, please contact Barry Kent MacKay, Animal Protection
Institute at 905.472.9731, or AnnaMaria Valastro,  Peaceful Parks Coalition
at 416.537.3212