Groups call for end to B.C. bear hunt
Here is a report from the Vancouver Province Newspaper on banning bear hunting:
By: Elaine O’Connor
Vancouver Province
March 17, 2009
http://www.theprovince.com/
Imagine the Great Bear Rainforest without bears.
That’s what B.C. First Nations and environmental groups asked the public to do Tuesday as they launched a campaign to end grizzly and black bear trophy hunting.
“It’s not a hunt. And it’s not trophy hunting. It’s slaughtering,” said Arnie Bellis, vice-president of the Council of the Haida Nation, speaking at a press conference at Simon Fraser University.
In 2007, 430 grizzly bears were killed in B.C. — 87 per cent by sport hunters.
“It doesn’t make economic sense, it doesn’t make biologic sense. It’s damaging B.C.’s bears, but it is also damaging B.C.’s reputation,” Ian McAllister, a conservationist with Pacific Wild, said of the practice.
B.C. bears are in the middle of a battle between First Nations communities, who have set up eco-tourism businesses that take tourists to photograph the bears, and B.C.’s guide outfitter industry, which take hunters to kill the bears.
Art Sterritt, executive director of the Coastal First Nations Turning Point Initiative, said the government must manage bears to promote sustainable tourism.
“This is not a sustainable industry,” Sterritt said of trophy hunting. “It is jeopardizing the sustainable industries we are trying to create.”
Environment Minister Barry Penner said the ministry was taking action by expanding protections.
“We are setting aside a further 475,000 hectares where grizzly bear hunting will not be allowed and a further 170,000 hectares where black bear hunting will not be allowed,” he said Tuesday.
The new closures will take effect in June and bring the total area closed to grizzly hunting to 1.9 million hectares.
Scott Ellis of the Guide Outfitters Association of B.C. said bear hunting brings in $120 million a year, $2.5 million generated from guided grizzly bear hunts alone, which charge up to $20,000 per trip.
He said a moratorium would hurt B.C.’s 230 guide businesses.
“Bear hunting, in spring specifically, is a very important part of our businesses. Without bear hunting many wouldn’t be viable.”
The Environment Ministry estimates there are approximately 16,000 grizzly bears and up to 160,000 black bears in B.C.
— with files from Suzanne Fournier
I personally disagree with banning any form of hunting especailly if it is scientifically viable and an economic advantage. People have to take the emotion out of the equation and realize that hunting is a part of our heritage and grizzly bears are not endagered in BC.
March 22nd, 2009 at 5:31 pm
Here is another article from the Vancouver Province newspaper on the same topic:
Coalition urges an end to trophy hunting of B.C. bears
By: Larry Pynn
Vancouver Sun
March 17, 2009
http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Coalition+urges+trophy+hunting+bears/1398381/story.html
Aboriginal groups stood in solidarity Tuesday with one of the world’s biggest animal rights organizations in demanding the provincial government ban widely unpopular trophy hunting of bears on the B.C. coast.
Percy Starr, a Kitasoo hereditary chief and member of the Coastal First Nations coalition, told a Vancouver news conference the killing of bears for sport goes against both aboriginal culture and efforts to generate an alternative economy based on sustainable tourism, including bear watching.
He complained that “trophy hunters still have the privilege of slaughtering bears in front of our guests” and that his people “are determined that the bear trophy hunt must stop.”
Bruce Passmore of Humane Society International/ Canada promised to exert international pressure on Premier Gordon Campbell’s Liberal government to end trophy hunting before the spring bear hunt begins April 1. He urged people around the world to consider the plight of bears in B.C. when considering a visit to this province, including during the 2010 Olympics, but stopped short of calling for a boycott.
“We’re not at that point yet. I really think the government will make the right decision.”
Environment Minister Barry Penner said a ban on bear hunting was not part of a lengthy land-use and conservancy plan for the central and north coast that involved native groups.
“I understand there are a range of views. We’re working hard to find an appropriate balance.”
Ministry spokesperson Kate Thompson said about 16,000 grizzlies and 80,000 to 100,000 black bears live in B.C.
Scott Ellis, general manager of the Guide Outfitters Association of B.C., argued the bear hunt is conservative, scientifically justifiable, and a way to control populations.
Trophy hunters killed 317 grizzlies in 2008 — 218 by residents and 99 by non-residents — down from 365 in 2007. Another 3,476 black bears were shot in 2006, the most recent year for which stats are available, which included 2,005 by residents and 1,471 by non-residents.
The 30,000-member B.C. Wildlife Federation also believes bear hunting is sustainable.
Ellis noted trophy hunters kill older males that would otherwise kill cubs and often pass up the opportunity to hunt smaller bears.
“It’s similar to catch and release in fishing, I guess.”
He said hunting fees contribute to provincial conservation programs and to rural economies, with a guided grizzly hunt fetching as much as $15,000 to $20,000 US, and about $6,500 US for a black bear.
Pacific Wild’s Ian McAllister said there is no fair chase because hunters are allowed to pull into estuaries, raise the motors of their boats, and legally shoot foraging bears.
McAllister complained that one prominent bear guide on the coast, Robert Milligan, continues to operate despite having been convicted of illegal hunting bears. Mulligan was convicted of 23 hunting violations in 1998.
Arnie Bellis, vice-president of the Council of the Haida Nation, said the term trophy hunt is “too noble” for what actually takes place.
“These are very dark days for B.C. The citizens of B.C. are not condoning it.”
A 2009 Ipsos Reid poll showed 78 per cent of B.C. residents oppose trophy hunting of bears.
The Wildlife Act requires hunters who kill black bears to remove the meat from the bush, but there is no such requirement for grizzly meat. Art Sterritt of Coastal First Nations said he has seen no evidence of trophy hunters killing bears for food.
“Our elders have seen carcasses of bears floating down rivers denuded of their hides and heads and paws.”
lpynn@vancouversun.com
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I still believe that Grizzly hunting is a sustainable and helpful activity to BC and the grizzly bear herd in general. Watch the same people come crying to the hunters after the grizzlys are protected saying there is way too many bears and they are infringing on our villages. Then when the sickness and diseases starts in the herd, scientist’s will say ” We should have used hunting as an effective wildlife management tool to keep the herd numbers healthy.”