By Greg Higgins

Glaslyn cries wolf, investigation reveals false alarm

Nov 23, 2016 | 4:00 PM

Yesterday’s dangerous alert for wolves in the village in Glaslyn turned out to be a false alarm.

The province’s emergency public alert program, SaskAlert, put out the advisory on Nov. 22 at roughly noon which was then cancelled at 3:31 p.m. According to Bill Zimmer, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Environment, the alert was cancelled when an investigation revealed there was no sign of a wolf at all.

“We are thinking in this instance it was a large dog that was seen and residents may have mistaken it for a timber wolf,” Zimmer said. “After conducting the interviews, investigation and looking at the tracks we determined it wasn’t a wolf.”

According to Zimmer, false alerts are uncommon but not unheard of. There were similar wolf advisories in the village before and since a municipality is in charge of issuing alerts, Zimmer felt someone was probably trying to be safe rather than sorry.

Zimmer said there is no penalty for a false alert but asked municipalities to do a better job confirming the danger before issuing a warning.

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“We don’t want to create any unnecessary fear or concerns with sightings that are not confirmed,” Zimmer said. “At the same time we understand that in the event there is an animal in the area there is a need to take some additional protection of family and pets.”

Zimmer advised residents and municipalities to contact a local Ministry of Environment office or a local expert on wildlife to look into sightings before issuing alerts.

Zimmer said wolves and other dangerous wildlife are prevalent throughout the province and added, though uncommon, wolf attacks on humans do happen. If anyone sees a wolf they are advised not to approach or attempt to capture the animal. Instead locals are encouraged to report it to authorities as soon as possible.

Calls to the Village of Glaslyn were not returned by deadline.

Greg Higgins is battlefordsNOW’s city municipal affairs and health reporter. He can be reached at ghiggins@jpbg.ca or tweet him @realgreghiggins.