2 questions for this Christmas season

[RD414]

1 what is going on in Manitoba with the Xmas deer slaughter. Heard chronic wasting, must of got positive results in the thousands to justify this population wipeout. Videos I’ve seen show healthy animals, sick ones must have been further back in the bush. 2 what happened to westjet? Staff fired and had their shares bought out. Taken over by another company. Anyone have any info on these 2 things?

[jazz]

The Westjet we all knew is gone. Company is a shell of itself

My MIL flew from Regina to Calgary last night. First last minute plane change. Then delayed an hour and then some typo on her ticket took 90m on the phone to resolve then 90m to get her bag at destination.

The staff are just zombies. Just going through the motions. They must have been broken by covid. Used to have great perky customer service.

Oh and to try and get someone on the phone now takes 4 days for a call back. Unreal.

If this is the new travel experience I can see people staying home.

[joey]

We live in the cull/slaughter zone. Talking to neighbours last night and from what was heard they killed about 500. 2 choppers with sharpshooters going for 5 days. Not sure if they are done this week or not.

Only 1 positive CWD found in late October. Farmers saw sickly deer in field and called the CO’s. so the geniuses that they are closed the hunting season in this area. No hunting allowed. Then they flew around with with choppers for a few days supposedly counting deer in closed hunting area. All done pre snow fall.

Fast forward a couple weeks,regular hunting season ends. They open a special permit for land owners and immediate family. Entitles you to 3 whitetail and 3 mule deer. Have to gut on spot and then take whole animal to CO, where they rake the parts the need, then let you know 2-3-4-5 weeks later if meat is safe to eat. That lasted till Dec 12.

As landowners in cull area the big wigs came to visit to get permission to cull/slaughter on our land. They told us they had counted 350 deer in cull zone from earlier fly over. We laughed and told them prob more like 3000. They admitted count wasn’t perfect due to no snow so hard to see deer. We are in the Assiniboine valley so lots of bush and hills. So that was a waste of taxpayer money.

Then with the land owner 6 deer permit they said they got less than 100 samples. They didn’t think that was enough, but they had no results yet. They probably would have got 200 more samples if they hadn’t closed the area to regular hunting season. Didn’t matter cause they have no test results yet.

Told us the only time the chopper snipers were available to come was week of Dec 13 so they had to get them, tests results in or not, cause it was the only chance they had.

So the geniuses that they are, without even testing any of the samples they had collected called in the choppers. They stared on Monday and we still going Friday. We will see if they come back next week. Some who were watching said there were quite a few deer shot that dropped and then got back up and made it to the bush. Don’t know if they were finished off and collected or left for the coyotes. CO,s claim they got them all.

They had at least 4 trucks with about 16 foot trailers with sides an bout 2 feet tall. Saw a couple go by and you could see deer legs sticking up. They had roads blocked and wouldn’t let anyone in too close to see what was going on. Neighbour said trailer loads going back and forth all day. You couldn’t get into where they were taking the dead’s. We told they would call the RCMP and you would be cuffed and taken away if you tried to get in there. They had guys on the ground, hooking the dead’s ropes by the neck and then were picked up by choppers and flown over to the pick up trailers. As many as 6 or 7 deer hauled at a time. Pretty sickening sight to see.

They initially said they were planning to salvage as much meat as possible to distribute to First Nations. Plan was to set up tents with propane heaters. I’m not sure how the planned on doing that. They were to save the meat and wait till the test results came back before distributing it. That would be quite a feat, keeping track of meat from each animal to know what was CWD negative or positive. Reports that tracks hoes could be seen from a distance where they were taking the deads so likely safe to assume they all went into a big hole.

When we got our visit seeking permission, we asked how many millions this was going to cost taxpayers and were assured it would be no where near even 1 million. Do the math. There were at least 16 conservation trucks that we saw with 2 people per truck. 2 helicopters with snipers. Who knows how many back at the camp collecting samples. They all needed food and lodging and fuel for all the trucks. Then the tents and heaters, storage for all the meat, back hoes if they were truly there. One local said they heard about 85 people were involved.

I really hope they find atone more positive to at least sort of justify what they have done. Will we ever find out if there we no positives? I doubt it.

They are from the government and they are here to help us!!! Ha ha

Heads up to those in the south west corner of the province where the second positive was found. Somebody please report back if the do a slaughter in that area.

[RD414]

What a bunch of morons, can’t they call somewhere else in Canada that has gone thru this, the co doesn’t even come out now when we call one in. We Just shoot it and move on. I wonder who got that contract in Manitoba for the choppers. And I’ve seen lots of pics of dead deer in the kill zone in Manitoba this week that were just shot and left.

[joey]

They told us it was some outfit from Alberta or BC. “Professionals” we were told. They do a lot of this and also catch and release collaring to track stuff. Bighorn something rings a bell but not sure.