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White Pass should clean up fallen telegraph wire

White Pass should clean up fallen telegraph wire Re: First Nation says it needs help to remove old telegraph wire (The News, Sept. 16): It was with great sadness that I saw the photos and read the item regarding the moose euthanized after being trapped i

Re: First Nation says it needs help to remove old telegraph wire (The News, Sept. 16):

It was with great sadness that I saw the photos and read the item regarding the moose euthanized after being trapped in a tangle of telegraph wire somewhere along the White Pass Rail right of way in the Carcross area.

Communications by telegraph have been out of use for probably 50 to 75 years, so why is the multiple wire system still out there on the land where it continues to entrap our wildlife?

I personally have seen eight or 10 caribou and moose skeletons with a really unbelievable amount of this heavy wire tangled around the antlers, which caused the animals to have a lingering death by starvation.

I know there have been many more wildlife deaths brought about as a result of the property owner failing to act responsibly by collecting the miles of multi-strand wires laying on the ground and partly suspended. What a terrible and completely avoidable way for these beautiful animals to die and just to rot away.

The reason for not salvaging the wire is likely that there is no profit to be made from cleaning up your mess. We see it with many mine closures, where nothing gets done until there is a disaster or the clean-up is paid for by the taxpayer.

White Pass director Jaime Bricker is quoted in the paper as saying that their crews collect and remove wire when it’s discovered. Well isn’t that a big deal. I bet I could discover miles of the killer wire just by walking from pole to pole along the right of way.

Come on White Pass, use your conscience as a guide.

Larry Leigh

Whitehorse