Animal Protection Groups Stand Up to Cruel Cormorant Killing

A dead cormorant hangs from the nest it shares with its mate.

To protect cormorants, large aquatic birds with shiny black and bronze plumage, from cruel and unnecessary killing in the bird sanctuary of Ontario's Presqu'ile Provincial Park, HSI Canada has joined Cormorant Defenders International.

Under pressure from angling lobby groups who claim that the birds provide competition for fish, the Ontario government has killed more than 10,000 cormorants in the park, a major bird-watching destination, from 2003 to 2006.

Veterinary experts and witnesses have found the Ontario government's management of cormorants excessively cruel, especially because the cormorant kills occur during the nesting season as the birds are incubating their eggs.

Dr. Mary Richardson, past Chair of the Animal Welfare Committee of the Ontario Veterinary Medical Association and Chair of the Animal Care Review Board for the Ontario Solicitor General, observed the cormorant kill in 2005 and 2006 along with veterinarian, Dr. Sandy Cook. Both found the level of cormorant suffering unacceptable and agreed that the kill was inhumane. The veterinarians were especially concerned for the birds who suffered bleeding to death and drowning, and they euthanized the wounded birds they found.

"This is much worse than I imagined," Richardson said, after witnessing the 2006 kill. "In all my years as a vet, I've never seen such a wasteful, brutal and callous way of dealing with animals. It's a veritable bloodbath on High Bluff Island."

Cormorant Defenders International works to end the cull of cormorants in Ontario through campaigns, public education and direct intervention. Since 2003, representatives from the group have observed, documented and protested the hunt. By putting their boats between the cormorants and the hunters, the group's protesters have prevented the government's shooters from killing their goal numbers of cormorants in the past two years.

Fortunately, the Ontario government agreed to cancel the cormorant cull for 2007, but this decision has only intensified opposition from anglers and does not guarantee that that the killing will stop for good.

To learn more about the struggle to protect the Double-crested cormorant and how you can help, visit Cormorant Defenders International. 

Learn more about the Double-crested cormorant.