Editor:
Trophy hunting Grizzly Bears in this country is like the old saying: “Give a man a fish and he can eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he can eat the rest of his days.”
Why should BCer’s support the relatively rich hunter taking the life of an animal and using it as a wall or floor decoration and petty prestige? Who can see that animal except that hunter’s family and friends? Even they are only seeing a still, stuffed, and skinned remnant and not the full grandeur of this striking animal.
So we have a choice to view a dead animal in very limited circumstances or see a live animal in its true surroundings for years to come by any number of people. Of course, this is only man’s perspective of this. There is the rest of nature that hinges on such decisions.
How many people have seen a grizzly in the wild? From my readings, there are anywhere from 6,000 to 15,000 grizzlies in B.C. What is worrisome is that sources comment that the Ministry of Environment really does not have a solid population figure for B.C.’s grizzlies.
Regardless, why is there any hunting permits permitted for these animals? How has it come to this, that 15,000 is a reasonable number of such animals, that any can be spared? This is especially galling, since some of the meat is never eaten.
“Hunt a grizzly bear today and one can hang, view, as well as proudly display the dead skin and fur on one’s wall or floor. Leave a grizzly bear to live its life in nature, and that animal can be viewed along with its future descendants, thriving in their magnificence.”
Rocco Catalano
Williams Lake