Province could buy out hunting tenures and create world’s largest reserve By Chris Genovali, Special to the Vancouver Sun April 14, 2014 http://www.vancouversun.com/technology/Opinion+government+wants+grizzly+bears+dead/9737955/story.html We want these bears dead. This is the message the B.C. government’s “reallocation policy” sends to the… Read More »Opinion: B.C. government wants grizzly bears dead
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/british-columbia/ People ask me a lot why I stepped into the fight against bear trophy hunting (that is, killing bears for pleasure, then taking the head or paws as a “trophy”). There is a stereotype about the sort of people… Read More »Bears Are My Neighbours, And You Wouldn’t Slaughter Your Neighbours by Chelsea Turner, Huffington Post
In 2001, about 50 bears were killed. By 2007, the annual kill was more than 350. The government claims killing up to six per cent of grizzlies a year is sustainable based on its estimate of 15,000 bears, writes Stephen… Read More »Stephen Hume: Grizzly hunt fails test of science, experts say
http://www.vancouversun.com/technology/Stephen+Hume+Brutish+Columbia+trophy+bear+hunt+puts+display/9624211/story.html In another couple of weeks, from the Kootenays to the coast and the Spatsizi to the Okanagan, the spring bear hunt gets underway. This opening occurs just as mother bears emerge from winter dens with their recently-born cubs.… Read More »Stephen Hume: ‘Brutish’ Columbia’s trophy bear hunt puts us on display, Vancouver Sun
National Affairs, Published on Fri Mar 07 2014
The issue is the spring bear hunt. Premier Kathleen Wynne is proposing to start up this dubious practice again for a two-year trial period
Tim Hudak’s Conservatives want the hunt reinstated, period. Andrea Horwath’s New Democrats walk a delicate line of deliberate obscurity.
But all three parties are running scared — fearful that any opposition to a renewal of the spring hunt could endanger their chances in key northern ridings.
Conversely, if they appear too eager to see bears killed, they might lose southern votes in an election that could come this spring.
There are up to 105,000 black bears in Ontario — virtually all of them in the north. For several weeks each fall, it is perfectly legal to shoot and kill them.
Until 1999, licensed hunters could also shoot and kill bears each spring. Mothers and cubs were supposed to be given a free pass. But in the thrill of the chase, such niceties weren’t always observed.
The preferred method of hunting a bear is to entice the animal into a kill zone by planting bait — and then blast away from the safety of a raised platform.
Not very sporting perhaps. But effective.
Fifteen years ago, to the surprise of the sporting lobby, Conservative premier Mike Harris cancelled the spring hunt.
Read More »Ontario’s politically convenient plan to revive spring bear hunt: Walkom
http://www.vancouversun.com/opinion/letters/grizzly+bear+hunt/9579008/story.html In a few weeks the annual government-sponsored trophy hunt of grizzly bears commences just as bears emerge from their dens with young in tow. The bears are hungry after their hibernation and easy targets for hunters. Inevitably, female bears… Read More »Letter to Editor March 5, 2014, End the grizzly bear hunt (in BC)
