A New Rule With Life-or-Death Stakes for Wild Sheep
British Columbia has amended its Wildlife Act in a move that's drawing attention from conservationists and animal welfare advocates alike: provincial conservation officers are now permitted to kill abandoned or stray domestic sheep found roaming areas where wild sheep herds live.
The change may sound stark, but the science behind it is well established — and the stakes for B.C.'s wild sheep populations are high.
Why Domestic Sheep Are a Threat to Wild Herds
Domestic sheep and wild sheep like bighorn and thinhorn are close enough genetically to interbreed and share diseases, but they've diverged enough that domestic animals often carry pathogens wild populations have no immunity against.
The most dangerous of these is Mycoplasma ovipneumoniae, a bacterial pathogen commonly found in domestic sheep and goats that can cause pneumonia in wild herds. When it jumps to bighorn sheep populations, the results can be catastrophic — die-offs of 30 to 90 per cent of a herd are not unheard of, and affected populations can take decades to recover, if they recover at all.
Historically, disease transmission from stray or released domestic sheep has been one of the leading drivers of bighorn sheep population collapse across western North America.
What the Province Is Saying
In its statement, the B.C. government explained that reclassifying domestic sheep under the Wildlife Act gives conservation officers the legal authority to act quickly when stray animals are found in high-risk areas near wild herds — without waiting for ownership disputes to be resolved or animal control processes to run their course.
Speed matters here. The longer a stray domestic sheep mingles near a wild population, the higher the risk of disease transfer. By the time clinical signs appear in wild animals, the damage may already be done.
A Difficult but Deliberate Policy Choice
The decision isn't without controversy. Animal welfare groups have raised concerns about lethal control being the first resort rather than the last. Critics argue that in many cases, stray domestic sheep could be captured and rehomed rather than killed.
Proponents of the rule change counter that capture operations in remote mountain terrain are logistically difficult, time-consuming, and not always feasible — particularly when an animal is found in close proximity to wild herds. They argue that the long-term conservation cost of inaction far outweighs the immediate cost of lethal removal.
B.C. is home to some of the most important bighorn and Stone's sheep habitat left in Canada. Protecting those populations, advocates say, requires tough calls.
A Broader Conversation About Responsible Ownership
Underlying the rule change is a persistent problem: domestic animals being abandoned or escaping into wilderness areas. Whether it's sheep left behind after a failed farming operation or animals released by owners who can no longer care for them, the consequences for native wildlife can be severe.
The new rules put the onus firmly on owners to ensure their animals don't end up in wild sheep country — and signal that the province is willing to prioritize ecosystem health when they do.
For B.C.'s wild sheep, it may be one of the more consequential conservation policy updates in recent years.
Source: CBC News British Columbia
