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Letters: Grizzly bears are not a food source

Whether or not the grizzly hunt is sustainable is not the issue.
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(Contributed) There is an estimated 15,000 grizzly bears in B.C., living in of the last areas of North America where they can live in their natural habitat.

Editor, The News:

What will it take?

Throughout the spring provincial election, voters were told that an NDP or Green victory would ensure an end to trophy hunting for grizzly bears.

Sadly, we forgot to read the fine print that said “meat hunting” would still be allowed except for a total ban in the Great Bear Rainforest.

Now the current government is seeking public input as to how to proceed with regards to the killing of grizzlies throughout the remainder of the province. Really? Haven’t the residents of British Columbia already made their views abundantly clear?

Polls (both historical and recent) have shown an approximately 90 per cent of British Columbians want the killing of grizzly bears stopped immediately. There is no difference in results from north to south, east to west, urban to rural, hunter to non-hunter. British Columbians want the killing to stop.

The ban on all killing of grizzly bears in the Great Bear Rainforest accounts for less than 10 per cent of the legal hunt – 90 per cent of grizzly bears in B.C. are still vulnerable.

Gender identification is not obvious and although technically protected thirty percent of grizzly kills are female often leaving orphan cubs to die a slow cruel death.

Limited entry hunting tags for the spring of 2018 are available on line. The hunt continues unabated with the only difference being that hunters and hunter guides must now claim they are hunting a food source.

Grizzly bears are not a food source – never has been.

Whether or not the grizzly hunt is sustainable is not the issue. The issue is one of morality not sustainability.

Forty-four prominent conservation groups, including the BCSPCA, the Suzuki Foundation, Coastal First Nations and the Valhalla Wilderness Society have signed a petition calling for a complete and immediate cessation.

Allowing hunters to kill for pleasure puts B.C. among many third world countries who allow trophy hunting as a source of much needed revenue. B.C. does not need money that badly.

Ecotourism is 10 to 11 times more lucrative than trophy hunting. The two cannot coincide as trophy hunting destroys the very foundation of ecotourism.

A picture of the hunter standing over the dead body of a grizzly is just as much a trophy as the head, paws and skin.

The current government promised an end to tolls on two Lower Mainland bridges. This happened virtually immediately. There were no committees to ponder impact on employment, environment or the wishes of the people living adjacent to the bridges. The election promise was simply enacted. Why is the issue of grizzly killing treated differently?

The wishes of the vast majority of British Columbians is not even in question. What will it take for the killing to stop?

Andree D’Andrea

Maple Ridge