The recommendations of the provincially-appointed Nuisance Bear Committee have not even been officially released, but already the opposition is lining up.
A group of six animal-rights advocacy organizations has roundly condemned the comments of committee member and Fort Frances Mayor Glenn Witherspoon regarding the re-introduction of the spring bear hunt in Ontario and is urging Premier Dalton McGuinty to ignore the findings.
“We have every confidence that Premier McGuinty will be true to his word and maintain the ban on the spring bear hunt,” Stephen Best, director of Environment Voters (a member of the alliance), said in a recent press release.
McGuinty has gone on the record as stating he will not bring back the spring bear hunt, which was axed by the former Mike Harris government in 1999.
Since then, there have been increasing reports of problems with bears in rural and small-town areas—particularly in Northern Ontario.
Last year, the provincial government set up the three-person panel to study the problem and make recommendations to cabinet.
That report was completed more than a month ago, but since then it has languished in the hands of the Ministry of Natural Resources pending the outcome of the provincial election Oct. 2.
Liz White, of the Animal Alliance of Canada, claimed the committee’s report should be ignored because one of its members—Mayor Witherspoon—has a “well-known bias” and “lacks credibility.”
“There is no empirical evidence that shows me a spring bear hunt will solve the problem of nuisance bears,” White said from her office in Toronto. “In fact, if we kill bears in the spring, we’re just going to have orphans [cubs].”
White also dismissed the impact to the tourist outfitters resulting from the four-year ban as merely one symptom of a larger problem. She claimed hunting itself is in decline and outfitters will have to find other means to maintain their industry.
“If you look at the Canadian Wildlife Services survey, the number of dollars generated [by hunting] is down,” she noted. “I think hunting demonstrates a law of diminishing returns in the long run.”
White added hunting is in conflict with other forms of tourism and, in fact, is damaging to the industry on the whole.
“People who outfit for hunting often have trouble marketing to people who just want to observe animals,” she claimed.
White also cited other issues affected the hunting industry, such as the National Firearms Registry and the dropping number of Ontario hunters.
“It’s not just bear hunting that’s affecting the tourism industry,” she remarked. “I think the hunters are barking up the wrong tree.”
White said she also questions the true number of bear sightings and wondered how accurately they have been reported.
White admitted she has not yet seen the committee’s full report nor any of its other recommendations, but maintains she is on solid scientific ground.
The coalition consists of the Animal Alliance of Canada, the Animal Protection Institute, the Bear Alliance, Environment Voters, World Society for the Protection of Animals (Canada), and Zoocheck Canada.
(Fort Frances Times)
Fort Frances Times
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