Documents published on the B.C. government website show just how frenzied the response was after more than a dozen wolves escaped the Greater Vancouver Zoo in Aldergrove on Aug. 16.
The documents offer new details and a behind-the-scenes look into the three-day search-and-rescue operation for 14 wolves kept at the zoo. Conservation officers and zoo officials debate public safety risks posed by the escaped wolves, discuss who was responsible for their capture, talk about using drones, tranquillizer darts and traps, and show confusion as to whether one or more wolves made it off zoo property.
The documents include emails, text messages and handwritten notes, as well as dozens of reports filed by the public about possible wolf sightings.
One of the most dramatic moments is a description of efforts by three officers from the B.C. Conservation Officer Service (COS) and veterinarian, Ken Macquisten, to capture wolves roaming free within the zoo. The description, handwritten by a conservation officer in a small flip notebook, reads:
“Go to wolf enclosure. Search for wolves. Ken [Macquisten] darts one wolf in dinosaur enclosure. I dart one near tracks near bear enclosure, it goes down in the creek. Zoo staff recover it, all good.
“I dart a second wolf as it ran by me, CO FERGUSON darts it again. It goes down near a creek, zoo staff recover it. After recovering the wolf, Sgt. Smith said that we are being told to leave by upper management.”
Text messages from a group chat of conservation officers, including Jack Trudgian, who worked closely with the zoo, discussed how much force should be used to secure the escaped wolves.
“Idea is to try and drug them and get them back in their pen so have lots of drugs,” Trudgian wrote in a text.
“Marc try to keep them alive,” he added.
“As u guys know these animals are permitted under the province. So u guys make any decisions, but certainly listen to what (zoo officials) have to say. They know the wolves better than us,” Trudgian wrote.
The documents include details that had not previously been reported, including confirmation that staff feeding the wolves at 6:30 a.m. on Aug. 16 “discovered a hole had been cut in the fence of the enclosure housing the wolves,” according to an email briefing from Maitland Smith, a sergeant with the COS, for Marc Plamondon, a COS officer.
“Based upon the potential for a criminal investigation involving mischief, it was decided that the RCMP members on scene would assume conduct of any criminal investigation,” Smith wrote.
Previously, officials at the zoo would only say that both the facility’s perimeter fence and the grey wolf enclosure were deliberately “compromised.”
Other email discussions in the documents show COS officials make clear that capturing the escaped wolves was the zoo’s responsibility.
“We are not responsible for proactively searching for and capturing the wolf,” Chris Doyle, deputy chief at B.C. Conservation Officer Service, wrote in an email to staff.
In other emails, a lengthy thread over the language used in safety messaging for the public showed officials were not united on the risk the escaped animals posed.
Shawn Brinsky, assistant deputy chief of provincial operations with the Conservation Officer Service, wrote that the escaped wolves were “not a public safety risk” and that the COS did not need to respond until the wolves showed behaviour that was “a moderate or high risk to the public.”
Paul Corns, a government official on the thread, disagreed. “Do not downplay public risk please,” he wrote.
Andrew Patrick, another government official on the thread, wrote that “once one animal is outside the confines of the facility, it becomes a public safety issue and COS/RCMP lead.”
Ultimately, two wolves made it off of zoo property. One, a three-year-old female called Chia, was hit by a car and found dead on the roadside. The other, a one-year-old female named Tempest, was found nearby and returned safely to the zoo. The remaining 12 were captured on-site.
A group text chat among conservation officers suggests that the extended discussion on public messaging by management was appreciated.
“Nice to see we are the good guys/gals on the news coverage with this response,” one officer wrote on the day after the escape.
