Big Names Join Bear-Hunt Fight
By Judith Lavoie, Times Colonist May 9, 2009
Groups fighting the province's bear trophy hunt pulled in some heavy-duty support yesterday when famed wildlife artist Robert Bateman and renowned wildlife researcher Jane Goodall teamed up to ask the province to stop the hunt.
In a video released yesterday, Goodall said people around the world believe that the B.C. government has protected the Great Bear Rainforest.
"To learn now that the government continues to allow the sport hunt of grizzly bears and even the rare coastal black bear that carries the recessive gene that allows the spirit bear to exist is shocking," said Goodall, founder of the Jane Goodall Institute for Wildlife Research, Education and Conservation.
Bateman, who lives on Saltspring Island, said trophy hunting of bears is an unforgivable act of wildlife destruction.
"Killing these bears has nothing to do with subsistence," Bateman said. "Grizzly and black bears are an integral part of our landscape and the ecosystem of the Great Bear Rainforest and there can be no justification for killing these animals just for sport."
The province must listen to the growing number of protests from British Columbians and First Nations and put a stop to the hunt, Bateman said.
Earlier this year, several First Nations, Pacific Wild, Humane Society International and Humane Society Wildlife Trust formed a coalition calling for an end to bear trophy hunting.
In March, Environment Minister Barry Penner announced that his ministry will establish three new "no hunting" areas for grizzly bears on the north and central coast and close specific areas to black bear hunting in the kermode bear range.
The grizzly restrictions cover 470,000 additional hectares effective in June; the black bear restrictions will take effect on 170,000 hectares in July.
The coalition working against the hunt claims that 430 grizzly bears were killed in 2007 and 87 per cent of those were killed by trophy hunters.
Black bears and grizzlies are often shot near shorelines as they forage for food in the spring and fall.
"It is only a matter of time before this senseless trophy hunt becomes a sad chapter in B.C.'s history," said Ian McAllister of Pacific Wild.
In 2001, shortly after being elected, the Liberal government scrapped a moratorium on the trophy hunting of grizzly bears.
jlavoie@tc.canwest.com
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