Crissa's Mate

Chapter Sixty-Four

By twelve o'clock that afternoon Crissa skipped her psychology class to head over to the Biology building where the "Protect the Wolves" rally was going to take place. When she arrived, she was surprised at how many of the other groups on campus had joined the conservation efforts to protest the wolf killings which had been planned in Alaska. She quickly took a place next to Becky and several of the other students whom she had met and had accompanied that fateful night into the mountains. Most of them had witnessed David, as a wolf, intervene in protecting one the club members from a deadly attack.

"We are the ones that are out of line!"  Becky was shouting into a portable microphone. She stood next to colleagues of her club who were holding up signs and banners. "Wolves are natural creatures, living in their natural habitat!"  she continued through the squeal of the sound system. Crissa was handed a large sign stapled to a pole which featured the photograph of a beautiful and noble-looking gray wolf. She took the image and began to wave it in the air while the crowd, responding to a local television crew filming the event began to chant in unison.

"Save our wolves! Save our wolves!"

Soon other students joined in the chant while late-comers were arriving with their own signs and banners adding to the crowd which was now fulsome, noisy and loud. Another TV film crew arrived on the scene and positioned itself to capture both the demonstrators and the students who had come out to observer the disruption to the day of classes on the UBC campus.

As people were clapping and chanting, the burgeoning crowd coalesced around Becky who it seemed would soon give an amplified message to the those gathered. Several older people in suits and ties had shown up, and Crissa assumed they were administrators of the university to monitor the demonstration and keep it under control. In addition, among the one to two-hundred students taking part in the activity, several uniformed members of the local police were also suddenly visible to insure campus order.

As Becky took center stage of the proceedings, the crowd became quieter to let her state the aims of the campus club.

"Thank you all for coming here today in support of our local wolves," she announced.

The crowd continued to reduce its noise and gather closer to her group.

"Just several hundred miles to the north of us . . . in the State of Alaska . . . they're getting ready to begin a wolf-kill program!"

The onlookers and activists began to loudly show their disapproval.

"They want to significantly reduce the population of a beautiful and majestic animal . . . that was here in on this continent many hundreds of thousand years before we humans!"

The crowd again began to loudly chant, "Save our Wolves . . . save our wolves!"

Becky shouted over the din. "Many of you are aware that our own Canadian authorities . . . have threatened similar actions. Just outside Vancouver! They're considering allowing hunters to enter the foothills above our city and campus  . . . to kill these beautiful animals . . . simply because of our leaders' ignorance and fears!"

"Save our wolves!"  the crowd responded louder and more adgitated.

"We cannot let this happen, people! I want each of you . . . when you leave here today . . . to call, tweet or email the Vancouver Mayor's Office and the Environmental Affairs Office in Victoria!  We must protest any future action allowing the hunting or killing of our treasured animals!"

The crowd broke into a loud applause.

Suddenly, Becky handed the microphone to one of the younger suited men now standing close to her. Again, the crowd hushed to listen.