The hunter who killed a wolf on the island of Newfoundland
earlier this year now says he regrets shooting the animal. Joe
Fleming shot what he thought was a coyote on the Bonavista
Peninsula in March. DNA tests have since shown that the
37-kilogram animal was, in fact, a wolf that likely migrated to
the island from Labrador on sea ice. Wolves still live in
Labrador, but are believed to have been hunted to extinction on
the island of Newfoundland in the 1930s. “I probably would not
have shot a wolf because there is some respect for a wolf," said
Fleming of Spillars Cove on the Bonavista Peninsula. "I don't
have much respect for coyotes because I mean any animal that
would sneak into your backyard and kill your pet or your sheep
or your goats, I don't have much respect for that, but I don't
see a wolf doing that. So if I thought it was a wolf, I probably
wouldn't have shot it." If the animal had been a coyote, Fleming
would most likely have won an annual province-wide competition
for shooting the largest coyote