Supplement to Animal Sanctuaries in Labrador | Page 2

was under a
different department. If, in both the Dominion and Provincial
governments there are unified departments of agriculture to aid and
control man's own domestic harvest, why should there not also be

unified departments to aid and control his harvest of the wilds? A
Minister of Fauna and Flora sounds startling, and perhaps a little
absurd. But fisheries, forests and game have more to do with each other
than any one of them with mines. And, whatever his designation, such
a minister would have no lack of work, especially in Labrador. But here
we come again to the complex human factors of three Governments and
more Departments. Yet, if this bio-geographic area cannot be brought
into one administrative entity, then the next best thing is concerted
action on the part of all the Governments and all their Departments.
There is no time to lose. Even now, when laws themselves stop short at
the Atlantic, new and adjacent areas are about to be exploited without
the slightest check being put on the exploiters. An expedition is leaving
New York for the Arctic. It is well found in all the implements of
destruction. It will soon be followed by others. And the musk-ox, polar
bears and walrus will shrink into narrower and narrower limits, when,
under protection, far wider ones might easily support abundance of this
big game, together with geese, duck and curlews. It is wrong to say that
such people can safely have their fling for a few years more. None of
the nobler forms of wild life have any chance against modern facilities
of uncontrolled destruction. What happened to the great auk and the
Labrador duck in the Gulf? What happened to the musk-ox in
Greenland? What is happening everywhere to every form of beneficial
and preservable wild life that is not being actively protected to-day?
Then, there is the disappearing whale and persecuted seal to think of
also in those latitudes. The _laissez-faire_ argument is no better here
than elsewhere. For if wild life is worth exploiting it must be worth
conserving.
There is need, and urgent need, for extending protective laws all along
the Atlantic Labrador and over the whole of the Canadian Arctic, where
the barren-ground caribou may soon share the fate of the barren-ground
bear in Ungava, especially if mineral exploitation sets in. Ungava and
the Arctic are Dominion grounds, the Atlantic Labrador belongs to
Newfoundland, Greenland to Denmark, and the open sea to all comers,
among whom are many Americans. Under these circumstances the new
international conference on whaling should deal effectively with the
protection of all the marine carnivora, and be followed by an
inter-dominion-and-provincial conference at which a joint system of

conservation can be agreed upon for all the wild life of Labrador,
including the cognate lands of Arctic Canada to the north and
Newfoundland to the south.
This occasion should be taken to place the whole of the fauna under
law; not only _game_, but noxious and beneficial species of every kind.
And here both local experts and trained zoologists ought to be
consulted. Probably everyone would agree that flies, wolves and
English sparrows are noxious. But the indiscriminate destruction of all
mammals and birds of prey is not a good thing, as a general rule, any
more than any other complete upsetting of the balance of nature. A
great deal could be learnt from the excellent work already done all over
the continent with regard to the farmer's and forester's wild friends and
foes. A migrating flight of curlew, snipe, plover or sandpipers is worth
much more to the farmer alive than dead. But by no means every
farmer knows the value of the difference.
This is only one of the many reasons why a special effort should be
made to bring a knowledge of the laws home to everyone in the areas
affected, including the areas crossed by the lines of migration.
The language should be unmistakeably plain. Every form of wild life
should be included, as wholly, seasonally, locally or otherwise
protected, or as not protected, or as exterminable, with penalties and
rewards mentioned in each case. All animals should be called by their
scientific, English, French, and special local names, to prevent the
possibility of mistake or excuse. Every man, resident or not, who uses
rod, gun, rifle, net or snare, afloat or ashore, should be obliged to take
out a license, even in cases where it might be given gratis; and his
receipt for it should contain his own acknowledgment that he has a
copy of the laws, which he thoroughly understands. Particular clauses
should be devoted to rapacious dealers who get collecting permits as
scientific men, to poison, to shooting from power boats or with swivel
guns, to that most diabolical engine of all murderers--the Maxim