Hunters: To protect our social licence, we have to stop killing animals we don’t eat

[Tarmac]

The following is my father's response to the article from Chris Darimont recently published in the Globe and Mail January 23rd. I am proud of my Pop for standing up and having a voice. We need more of us to do the same. If we sit back and do nothing, our hunting heritage will fall victim to the antis.
__________________________________________________ __________

His article was: Hunters: To protect our social licence, we have to stop killing animals we don’t eat


I have titled my response as noted below.

Conflicts between Hunters and Non Hunters in Understanding Wildlife Management

“In a civilized and cultivated country, wild animals only continue to exist at all when preserved by sportsmen” - Theodore Roosevelt

It was with interest reading another article slamming Steve Ecklund for posting images of himself with a large cougar that he legally killed in Northern Alberta. This latest article was written by Chris Darimont, an associate professor, science director for the Raincoast Conservation Foundation and a proclaimed hunter as well.

Had Steve Ecklund been around in the early 1900’s and posted the same photo he would have been a celebrity, received slaps on the back, congratulations and the bar would have bought him drinks all night.

Mr. Darimont would like to see a ban on the hunting of all Carnivores stating “we have to stop killing animals we don’t eat”. Designating himself as a hunter I was surprised he would make that statement as all hunters know that in order to maintain a healthy wildlife population carnivores which are predators have to be controlled. .

Hunters are also considered in the equation of proper and responsible Wildlife Management. If it wasn’t for hunters and trappers to assist the Provincial Governments in the reduction of carnivores they would have to hire hundreds to achieve what is required by them.

For those who do not understand, a carnivore is a meat eater such as cougars, wolves, polar bears, dolphins, whales and pinnipeds which are seals, sea lions and walruses. One would think that a coyote and a fox would also be a carnivore but they both eat berries and some plants. Many have stated that a coyote has killed and eaten their cat or dog so disagree with me and everyone has a story about a fox stealing their chickens as well but coyotes and foxes are classed as Omnivores.

The mass movement toward organic meats and vegetables has exploded in the last decade as we have become more aware and interested in what we are consuming. That is why the demand for a hunting license has increased as more and more non hunters have become hunters. This has placed a higher demand on our Ungulate population which includes deer, elk, moose and caribou. A hunter knows that this wild meat is untouched with the medicinal injections and the processed feed that our domestically raised animals receive which the majority of the population consumes daily.

The value of wild meat is huge to society in many ways. It takes some of the strain off of the demand for domestic meat as we try to feed a ever growing population with what is available at our supermarkets. It is also huge to a provincial economy in the dollar value that it generates in license sales and everything that a hunter purchases from automobiles, ATV’s, campers, boats, travel trailers, clothing, accessories, employment and tourism. It is proven to be the most expensive activity that a person can engage in.

So lets take a look at the losses that we presently face from carnivores. I will share several recent studies conducted by biologists in Alaska, Alberta and Ontario. Together with some recently published articles on the subject.

January 2018. Government launches operation to move endangered caribou herd off wolf-laden island a National Post Article.

In 2013-2014 part of Lake Superior froze allowing 4 wolves to cross on the ice to Michipicoten island that had 700 caribou living on it. Between 2014 to 2018 the wolves reduced the caribou population to less than 100 in a mere 4 years. The Ontario government was made aware of the situation in its infancy but chose to collar the wolves to study their interaction with the caribou. Obviously this study failed as they are now using helicopters to remove the remaining 100 caribou to another island that is not occupied by wolves.

I cannot imagine the daily trauma that these caribou went through as 4 wolves killed 2.4 caribou every day. If the government had not finally taken action the wolves would have eventually killed the entire population of caribou and then they would have perished as well.

January 2018. University of Alberta study finds Mountain Lions may be eating more than previously believed.

Kyle Knopff was the lead author of a three year study that was recently published in the Journal of Wildlife Management. He based his conclusions on data that he collected from more than 1,500 kill sites while tracking 54 cougars that had GPS collars. They found that in Alberta, mountain lions prey included deer, elk, bighorn sheep, coyotes, feral horses, beaver and porcupines. They reported that one male cougar killed 18 moose in less than 12 months. They found that an adult male cougar killed an estimated 10,300 pounds of biomass annually and that female cougars killed and estimated 9,400 pounds of biomass annually. Knopff writes that the Canadian study could be used by Game Managers to better calculate a mountain lion’s take of game animals and in turn reduce lion numbers to benefit deer, elk and moose populations.

The cougar population in British Columbia is rising rapidly with exact population numbers not known and only rumours of it being in excess of 1500 cats in the Okanagan where I live.
What is known is that cougar sightings and cougar complaints are on the rise in rural and urban centres throughout B.C.

February 2017. Two juvenile cougars caught and destroyed on the Sunshine Coast”. These two young cougars were causing problems with domestic animals and were the subject of a complaint from a woman who claimed to being stalked by them on a local logging road. Minister of Environment (MOE) reported 35 cougars were destroyed in January 2017, 28 by Conservation Officers.

May 2014. Ministry of Environment statistics showed there were 389 reported sightings in May 2014. In Metro Vancouver alone there were 99 reported sightings.

October 2017. An Independent Audit of Grizzly Bear Management. Conducted by the Auditor General of British Columbia.

This is a 70 plus page document that is well worth the read by everyone interested in our wildlife in British Columbia. It is a damning report about our Minister of Environment (MOE) and Minister of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations (MFLNRO) who were responsible for the management of our Grizzly Bear populations and their habitat since 1995. Some of my statements below were taken from her report.

As far back as 1995 the Government of BC publicly committed to maintain a healthy grizzly bear populations and ecosystems that they depend on. However, nothing was ever done and when asked why, both agencies used the excuses that each thought the other department was responsible and blamed lack of funding and staff to be able to do it.

On page 41 of her report it states: From 2006 to 2015, the Conservation Officer Service (COS) has responded to an increasing number of human-bear conflicts, which resulted in 389 grizzly bears having to be killed. Some humans experienced injuries from these conflicts, but no humans were killed.

So in 9 years there were 389 grizzly bear encounters in British Columbia or 43 per year or 3.6 a month, almost 1 a week.

The Government established a user-pay system to support conservation through a Habitat Conservation Fund under the Wildlife Act in 1981. Users of Wildlife (anglers, hunters, trappers and guides) would make a direct investment in conservation by paying an additional licence surcharge. In 1998, the fund was transferred to the newly created Habitat Conservation Trust Foundation.

In 2007, the Wildlife Act was amended to make the foundation entirely independent from government. In regards to grizzly bears alone a resident and a non resident purchase a license which has a surcharge. The surcharge goes to the foundation who carried out conservation activities which can include inventory and monitoring. The remainder goes into governments general revenue.

In 2015, the ministry collected $366,400 from grizzly bear licenses alone of which $34,000 went to the foundation. Can you imagine the huge dollars that the government and the trust fund receive each year from the sale of all of the other species licenses combined. Where has this money gone?

In regards to the statement that Grizzly Bear viewing brings in over 10 times the annual revenue of grizzly hunting in coastal B.C. I don’t know where that information was obtained but having been in the business I don’t see how that is ever possible.

I can only hope that the Auditor General will complete an independent audit of our ungulates. That would make our Ministry’s more accountable in their regard due to the present high demand for their meat.

Since I don’t have any record of studies completed by our B.C. Minister of Environment to refer to, I have made reference to some of Alaska's Fish and Game reports below.

January 2012. Alaska Department of Fish and Game has an excellent program of tracking wildlife to learn their habits, kill ratios and migration. They spend endless hours in the air and on the ground collaring wildlife with GPS and/or neck mounted video cameras which collected almost 12,000 video clips of the bears activities. Their research showed that up to 85 percent of the moose calves born in the study area die before fall with most killed by bears.

May 2010. Alaskan Research Biologist Rod Bertje who has studied moose for 30 years reported that he estimates that 120,000 moose calves are born in June and only 30,000 survive to the spring. He reports that over 40,000 are killed in the first 6 weeks and that the mortality is 65-70 percent. Rod Bertje blames grizzly bear, black bear and wolves for the mortality.

January 2007. Alaska Department of Fish and Game conducted a predator and moose study in an area where the moose population dropped from roughly 10,000 animals to fewer than 4,100 since the 1980’s. The study was implemented because they had previously collared 85 moose and reported that they were healthy and that calf production was excellent. They were troubled as to why the moose population wasn’t increasing. Their finding was that fewer that 10 percent of the calves survived to reach five months of age and suspected bears and wolves were responsible.

October 2005. Got Moose? Cows are Key to Altering a Moose Population. Alaska Department of Fish and Game report, written by Sue Steinacher.

Their studies reported that cow moose are the key in increasing the population. They looked at how many offspring a cow would have in her 15 reproductive years. Often moose have twins each year and some of the calves being male they would expect she would produce 20 offspring. With mortality they calculated that only 10 would survive to adulthood. So if half of the 10 were females then those 5 moose produced 10 more each so now we have 50 more moose added to the population from the original cow. Now, if half of these 50 moose are cows, thats 25 cows that each produce 10 adult moose, thats 250 moose added to the population from the original cow. You can see here how important it is not to shoot cows or does if you want to increase your ungulate population.

June 2001. Study show Grizzlies are killing Moose calves. Anchorage Daily News.

Alaska Fish and Game Biologist Toby Boudreau stated that the study is a key component of a predator control plan approved that spring. Boudreaux stated that the plan calls for state sponsored wolf and even black bear killing if hunting and trapping doesn’t cull enough predators. Biologists collared 68 moose calves in May and June 2001and within a month, 32 were killed. Fifteen by grizzlies, 11 by black bears, 5 by wolves and 1 drowned.

A hunter is aware of everything that affects wildlife as he or she has a vested interest and pushes for changes to regulations to help preserve hunting for future generations.
Hunters usually don’t rally in groups, carry banners, write letters and protest like non hunters do. They don’t want to get involved in the political process of trying to justify why they enjoy hunting.

Non hunters only see them as killers not understanding or wanting to know why they like to hunt. Hunters are embarrassed to say that they killed a deer so they have adapted the word harvest in the hope not to offend. Personally, I disagree with the word as hunters do not harvest an animal. They didn’t plant it, weed it or water it so I wish they would stop using the word harvest and just say that they shot it.

What non hunters do not know is that hunters are also a driving force behind pushing the governments and logging company’s for habitat protection and predator control for wildlife. Does a non hunter know that ungulates in particular cannot survive in an area under the current logging practices. Previous governments cancelled the Forest Practice Code which placed restrictions on the logging companies whom now are responsible to police themselves. Thats like giving the fox a key to the hen house.

Hunters are pushing for logging road closures to protect the habitat of wildlife. Does a non hunter know that at present there are 600,000 kilometres of resource roads in British Columbia with an additional 10,000 kilometre added each year. These roads are from logging and as such logging has reduced their habitat (Auditor Generals report).

Hunters push for smaller cut blocks and to maintain forested corridors for wildlife so they can hide from predators. Hunters know that ungulates survive best in Aspen not in the pine forests that are being planted. Hunters are aware that logging companies are chemically spraying cut blocks to kill certain plant species that ungulates eat.

I was a non hunter, I grew up in Ontario and spent my teenage years in Ottawa. When I was twenty one, I moved to British Columbia and lived in Vancouver. As a non hunter I didn’t know about wildlife nor did I care. I would see deer on the side of the road, on a city street or in the neighbourhood. I never once thought if they have enough to eat or are they there because a wolf, coyote, cougar or bear has pushed them there. If asked what I thought about hunting, I wouldn’t know what to answer. If I was told to shoot it, I would have said no because I wouldn’t have wanted to.

Several years later I moved to a rural area in the West Kootenay's. I became educated about wildlife by a dear friend who was a rancher and a trapper and 30 years my senior. I learned more about wildlife when a coyote came into our yard and killed our tiny house dog named Coco. This City boy became more educated the next year when a cougar came into the yard and killed my best friend Chip that was a German Short Haired Pointer.

Cougars were plentiful back then as well and a few years later I bought some cougar hounds. Together with an experienced seasoned Hounds-man who taught me more about our environment we treed cougars each weekend during the winter months and photographed them and let them go. I learned to understand and respect carnivores and the drastic impact on wildlife that they can have if not managed properly.

It was on our small hobby farm where we raised chickens, a dairy cow, beef cattle and had a huge garden. It was there where we observed wildlife in their natural habitat and learned what impacts them. It was there where I learned how to trap and why we need to shoot carnivores after a cougar came into a neighbours yard and killed three of his young calves only to take a small bite from each.

It was there where I learned that for wildlife, it is the survival of the fittest and carnivores are to be managed and controlled if you want a healthy sustainable population of ungulates.
It was there where I became a hunter.
It was there where I found from experience how humanely it is to shoot a unsuspecting animal grazing in its natural habitat.
Much more humane than what I witnessed at a slaughterhouse where cattle were waiting in line and knew the end was coming.

In my thirties I became a licensed Guide Outfitter in the Province of British Columbia for seventeen years.
Those were some of the best years of my life.
To witness the excitement of my foreign clients who have arrived from countries near and far away.
To hear their stories about their wildlife and about what they have dreamed and heard about our wildlife.
To witness a cow moose giving birth while watching a large black bear sneaking up on her.
The moose knowing that his intentions were to kill her innocent calf and take it away from her which we didn’t allow.
Two watch 2 bears fight to the death of one over the possession of a nearby carcass.
To have a pack of wolves come into our camp at night in an attempt to kill our own dogs.
To witness black bears on a sheer mountain face attempting to sneak up on a mother goat and her young.
Only to be tricked out of their plans when we stood up and whistled to scare the goats away.
To watch mature male moose exaggerate their walk toward each other rocking their heads back and forth in an attempt to intimidate the other.

As a non hunter turned hunter, trapper, retired Guide Outfitter and a Environmentalist. I have learned through experience by working closely with wildlife that carnivores need to be controlled to protect ungulates for our future generations.

Norm Blaney
Kelowna B.C

[charves]

Nicely done!!!
Very well put together.

[Outdoorfanatic]

worth the read, wish more would do just that. Always find it perplexing that the antis criticize from a distance about the ethics of hunting but never do the same about the steak they purchase at the grocery store. As far as predators go, well aside from managing the ungulate population we actually raise awareness and value for predators when we're willing to spend money pursuing them. That's one big difference between the antis and hunters, hunters pay for their involvement with conservation, antis just protest.

Thanks for putting together such a well written defence of our heritage and right to hunt.

[Athabasca1]

Good of you to post the letter. Well done letter.

[no-regard]

That's a great read!

[HowSwedeItIs]

Good on him for taking the time to respond, very well written

[Ithaca Dog]

Excellently written. It should be published in more than one place.

[pikergolf]

Well thought out, he comes across as reasonable. Good on him!

[Freerider]

Very well written!

This is exactly the kind of response we need to the antihunting movement. The "#*($& you I will do what I want" response will get us nowhere. Science and history is on our side. the unfortunate thing is most hunters don't even realize that. Admittedly its been awhile but I don't remember any of that in detail from my hunters ed course.

It surprises me the number of hunters I see posting in various media that like the author of the original article are in agreement with banning "Trophy Hunting" or the hunting of animals for reasons other then food. When the facts are laid out like your father has done in his response it makes no sense. For example the recent banning of the Grizzly hunt in BC. I personally have zero interest in hunting Grizzly mostly because its way out of my price range and not something I could of DIY'd. I however believe losing it is the greatest blow to hunting right now. The antihunting crowd has won a battle despite being wrong about every aspect of conservation and science.

[Don_Parsons]

Thanks for the post TM

Very good write up with some good points we can use to share with others.

Don

[Jucebox]

I like that article a lot. It has a great perspective and delivers it well, most of me and mine have similar views and we should all be more vocal. Politics are all about showing up, and we have to start showing up more.

[Knotter]

His affiliation with Raincoast and his involvement in anti hunting initiatives is his CAREER. I haven't seen field pic of his hunting but that would be a HOBBY. Calling himself a hunter would be a stretch and something he did only to serve his greater goal. I doubt that a lowly hunter would get a letter of press in the LA times as he did. His (or rather his organization's) approach to media is very sophisticated. Here is a statement from a study where he was involved that got press in response to "Cecil" the anthropomorphized Lion.

"If these hunters are hunting for status essentially, there's nothing like shame to erode status," Darimont said. "So where the internet might fuel this kill-and-tell generation, it might also provide a vehicle for those opposed to trophy hunting to emerge with a powerful strategy."

read the rest here
http://www.latimes.com/science/scien...328-story.html

[wildbill]

Originally Posted by Tarmac

The following is my father's response to the article from Chris Darimont recently published in the Globe and Mail January 23rd. I am proud of my Pop for standing up and having a voice. We need more of us to do the same. If we sit back and do nothing, our hunting heritage will fall victim to the antis.
__________________________________________________ __________

His article was: Hunters: To protect our social licence, we have to stop killing animals we don’t eat


I have titled my response as noted below.

Conflicts between Hunters and Non Hunters in Understanding Wildlife Management

“In a civilized and cultivated country, wild animals only continue to exist at all when preserved by sportsmen” - Theodore Roosevelt

It was with interest reading another article slamming Steve Ecklund for posting images of himself with a large cougar that he legally killed in Northern Alberta. This latest article was written by Chris Darimont, an associate professor, science director for the Raincoast Conservation Foundation and a proclaimed hunter as well.

Had Steve Ecklund been around in the early 1900’s and posted the same photo he would have been a celebrity, received slaps on the back, congratulations and the bar would have bought him drinks all night.

Mr. Darimont would like to see a ban on the hunting of all Carnivores stating “we have to stop killing animals we don’t eat”. Designating himself as a hunter I was surprised he would make that statement as all hunters know that in order to maintain a healthy wildlife population carnivores which are predators have to be controlled. .

Hunters are also considered in the equation of proper and responsible Wildlife Management. If it wasn’t for hunters and trappers to assist the Provincial Governments in the reduction of carnivores they would have to hire hundreds to achieve what is required by them.

For those who do not understand, a carnivore is a meat eater such as cougars, wolves, polar bears, dolphins, whales and pinnipeds which are seals, sea lions and walruses. One would think that a coyote and a fox would also be a carnivore but they both eat berries and some plants. Many have stated that a coyote has killed and eaten their cat or dog so disagree with me and everyone has a story about a fox stealing their chickens as well but coyotes and foxes are classed as Omnivores.

The mass movement toward organic meats and vegetables has exploded in the last decade as we have become more aware and interested in what we are consuming. That is why the demand for a hunting license has increased as more and more non hunters have become hunters. This has placed a higher demand on our Ungulate population which includes deer, elk, moose and caribou. A hunter knows that this wild meat is untouched with the medicinal injections and the processed feed that our domestically raised animals receive which the majority of the population consumes daily.

The value of wild meat is huge to society in many ways. It takes some of the strain off of the demand for domestic meat as we try to feed a ever growing population with what is available at our supermarkets. It is also huge to a provincial economy in the dollar value that it generates in license sales and everything that a hunter purchases from automobiles, ATV’s, campers, boats, travel trailers, clothing, accessories, employment and tourism. It is proven to be the most expensive activity that a person can engage in.

So lets take a look at the losses that we presently face from carnivores. I will share several recent studies conducted by biologists in Alaska, Alberta and Ontario. Together with some recently published articles on the subject.

January 2018. Government launches operation to move endangered caribou herd off wolf-laden island a National Post Article.

In 2013-2014 part of Lake Superior froze allowing 4 wolves to cross on the ice to Michipicoten island that had 700 caribou living on it. Between 2014 to 2018 the wolves reduced the caribou population to less than 100 in a mere 4 years. The Ontario government was made aware of the situation in its infancy but chose to collar the wolves to study their interaction with the caribou. Obviously this study failed as they are now using helicopters to remove the remaining 100 caribou to another island that is not occupied by wolves.

I cannot imagine the daily trauma that these caribou went through as 4 wolves killed 2.4 caribou every day. If the government had not finally taken action the wolves would have eventually killed the entire population of caribou and then they would have perished as well.

January 2018. University of Alberta study finds Mountain Lions may be eating more than previously believed.

Kyle Knopff was the lead author of a three year study that was recently published in the Journal of Wildlife Management. He based his conclusions on data that he collected from more than 1,500 kill sites while tracking 54 cougars that had GPS collars. They found that in Alberta, mountain lions prey included deer, elk, bighorn sheep, coyotes, feral horses, beaver and porcupines. They reported that one male cougar killed 18 moose in less than 12 months. They found that an adult male cougar killed an estimated 10,300 pounds of biomass annually and that female cougars killed and estimated 9,400 pounds of biomass annually. Knopff writes that the Canadian study could be used by Game Managers to better calculate a mountain lion’s take of game animals and in turn reduce lion numbers to benefit deer, elk and moose populations.

The cougar population in British Columbia is rising rapidly with exact population numbers not known and only rumours of it being in excess of 1500 cats in the Okanagan where I live.
What is known is that cougar sightings and cougar complaints are on the rise in rural and urban centres throughout B.C.

February 2017. Two juvenile cougars caught and destroyed on the Sunshine Coast”. These two young cougars were causing problems with domestic animals and were the subject of a complaint from a woman who claimed to being stalked by them on a local logging road. Minister of Environment (MOE) reported 35 cougars were destroyed in January 2017, 28 by Conservation Officers.

May 2014. Ministry of Environment statistics showed there were 389 reported sightings in May 2014. In Metro Vancouver alone there were 99 reported sightings.

October 2017. An Independent Audit of Grizzly Bear Management. Conducted by the Auditor General of British Columbia.

This is a 70 plus page document that is well worth the read by everyone interested in our wildlife in British Columbia. It is a damning report about our Minister of Environment (MOE) and Minister of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations (MFLNRO) who were responsible for the management of our Grizzly Bear populations and their habitat since 1995. Some of my statements below were taken from her report.

As far back as 1995 the Government of BC publicly committed to maintain a healthy grizzly bear populations and ecosystems that they depend on. However, nothing was ever done and when asked why, both agencies used the excuses that each thought the other department was responsible and blamed lack of funding and staff to be able to do it.

On page 41 of her report it states: From 2006 to 2015, the Conservation Officer Service (COS) has responded to an increasing number of human-bear conflicts, which resulted in 389 grizzly bears having to be killed. Some humans experienced injuries from these conflicts, but no humans were killed.

So in 9 years there were 389 grizzly bear encounters in British Columbia or 43 per year or 3.6 a month, almost 1 a week.

The Government established a user-pay system to support conservation through a Habitat Conservation Fund under the Wildlife Act in 1981. Users of Wildlife (anglers, hunters, trappers and guides) would make a direct investment in conservation by paying an additional licence surcharge. In 1998, the fund was transferred to the newly created Habitat Conservation Trust Foundation.

In 2007, the Wildlife Act was amended to make the foundation entirely independent from government. In regards to grizzly bears alone a resident and a non resident purchase a license which has a surcharge. The surcharge goes to the foundation who carried out conservation activities which can include inventory and monitoring. The remainder goes into governments general revenue.

In 2015, the ministry collected $366,400 from grizzly bear licenses alone of which $34,000 went to the foundation. Can you imagine the huge dollars that the government and the trust fund receive each year from the sale of all of the other species licenses combined. Where has this money gone?

In regards to the statement that Grizzly Bear viewing brings in over 10 times the annual revenue of grizzly hunting in coastal B.C. I don’t know where that information was obtained but having been in the business I don’t see how that is ever possible.

I can only hope that the Auditor General will complete an independent audit of our ungulates. That would make our Ministry’s more accountable in their regard due to the present high demand for their meat.

Since I don’t have any record of studies completed by our B.C. Minister of Environment to refer to, I have made reference to some of Alaska's Fish and Game reports below.

January 2012. Alaska Department of Fish and Game has an excellent program of tracking wildlife to learn their habits, kill ratios and migration. They spend endless hours in the air and on the ground collaring wildlife with GPS and/or neck mounted video cameras which collected almost 12,000 video clips of the bears activities. Their research showed that up to 85 percent of the moose calves born in the study area die before fall with most killed by bears.

May 2010. Alaskan Research Biologist Rod Bertje who has studied moose for 30 years reported that he estimates that 120,000 moose calves are born in June and only 30,000 survive to the spring. He reports that over 40,000 are killed in the first 6 weeks and that the mortality is 65-70 percent. Rod Bertje blames grizzly bear, black bear and wolves for the mortality.

January 2007. Alaska Department of Fish and Game conducted a predator and moose study in an area where the moose population dropped from roughly 10,000 animals to fewer than 4,100 since the 1980’s. The study was implemented because they had previously collared 85 moose and reported that they were healthy and that calf production was excellent. They were troubled as to why the moose population wasn’t increasing. Their finding was that fewer that 10 percent of the calves survived to reach five months of age and suspected bears and wolves were responsible.

October 2005. Got Moose? Cows are Key to Altering a Moose Population. Alaska Department of Fish and Game report, written by Sue Steinacher.

Their studies reported that cow moose are the key in increasing the population. They looked at how many offspring a cow would have in her 15 reproductive years. Often moose have twins each year and some of the calves being male they would expect she would produce 20 offspring. With mortality they calculated that only 10 would survive to adulthood. So if half of the 10 were females then those 5 moose produced 10 more each so now we have 50 more moose added to the population from the original cow. Now, if half of these 50 moose are cows, thats 25 cows that each produce 10 adult moose, thats 250 moose added to the population from the original cow. You can see here how important it is not to shoot cows or does if you want to increase your ungulate population.

June 2001. Study show Grizzlies are killing Moose calves. Anchorage Daily News.

Alaska Fish and Game Biologist Toby Boudreau stated that the study is a key component of a predator control plan approved that spring. Boudreaux stated that the plan calls for state sponsored wolf and even black bear killing if hunting and trapping doesn’t cull enough predators. Biologists collared 68 moose calves in May and June 2001and within a month, 32 were killed. Fifteen by grizzlies, 11 by black bears, 5 by wolves and 1 drowned.

A hunter is aware of everything that affects wildlife as he or she has a vested interest and pushes for changes to regulations to help preserve hunting for future generations.
Hunters usually don’t rally in groups, carry banners, write letters and protest like non hunters do. They don’t want to get involved in the political process of trying to justify why they enjoy hunting.

Non hunters only see them as killers not understanding or wanting to know why they like to hunt. Hunters are embarrassed to say that they killed a deer so they have adapted the word harvest in the hope not to offend. Personally, I disagree with the word as hunters do not harvest an animal. They didn’t plant it, weed it or water it so I wish they would stop using the word harvest and just say that they shot it.

What non hunters do not know is that hunters are also a driving force behind pushing the governments and logging company’s for habitat protection and predator control for wildlife. Does a non hunter know that ungulates in particular cannot survive in an area under the current logging practices. Previous governments cancelled the Forest Practice Code which placed restrictions on the logging companies whom now are responsible to police themselves. Thats like giving the fox a key to the hen house.

Hunters are pushing for logging road closures to protect the habitat of wildlife. Does a non hunter know that at present there are 600,000 kilometres of resource roads in British Columbia with an additional 10,000 kilometre added each year. These roads are from logging and as such logging has reduced their habitat (Auditor Generals report).

Hunters push for smaller cut blocks and to maintain forested corridors for wildlife so they can hide from predators. Hunters know that ungulates survive best in Aspen not in the pine forests that are being planted. Hunters are aware that logging companies are chemically spraying cut blocks to kill certain plant species that ungulates eat.

I was a non hunter, I grew up in Ontario and spent my teenage years in Ottawa. When I was twenty one, I moved to British Columbia and lived in Vancouver. As a non hunter I didn’t know about wildlife nor did I care. I would see deer on the side of the road, on a city street or in the neighbourhood. I never once thought if they have enough to eat or are they there because a wolf, coyote, cougar or bear has pushed them there. If asked what I thought about hunting, I wouldn’t know what to answer. If I was told to shoot it, I would have said no because I wouldn’t have wanted to.

Several years later I moved to a rural area in the West Kootenay's. I became educated about wildlife by a dear friend who was a rancher and a trapper and 30 years my senior. I learned more about wildlife when a coyote came into our yard and killed our tiny house dog named Coco. This City boy became more educated the next year when a cougar came into the yard and killed my best friend Chip that was a German Short Haired Pointer.

Cougars were plentiful back then as well and a few years later I bought some cougar hounds. Together with an experienced seasoned Hounds-man who taught me more about our environment we treed cougars each weekend during the winter months and photographed them and let them go. I learned to understand and respect carnivores and the drastic impact on wildlife that they can have if not managed properly.

It was on our small hobby farm where we raised chickens, a dairy cow, beef cattle and had a huge garden. It was there where we observed wildlife in their natural habitat and learned what impacts them. It was there where I learned how to trap and why we need to shoot carnivores after a cougar came into a neighbours yard and killed three of his young calves only to take a small bite from each.

It was there where I learned that for wildlife, it is the survival of the fittest and carnivores are to be managed and controlled if you want a healthy sustainable population of ungulates.
It was there where I became a hunter.
It was there where I found from experience how humanely it is to shoot a unsuspecting animal grazing in its natural habitat.
Much more humane than what I witnessed at a slaughterhouse where cattle were waiting in line and knew the end was coming.

In my thirties I became a licensed Guide Outfitter in the Province of British Columbia for seventeen years.
Those were some of the best years of my life.
To witness the excitement of my foreign clients who have arrived from countries near and far away.
To hear their stories about their wildlife and about what they have dreamed and heard about our wildlife.
To witness a cow moose giving birth while watching a large black bear sneaking up on her.
The moose knowing that his intentions were to kill her innocent calf and take it away from her which we didn’t allow.
Two watch 2 bears fight to the death of one over the possession of a nearby carcass.
To have a pack of wolves come into our camp at night in an attempt to kill our own dogs.
To witness black bears on a sheer mountain face attempting to sneak up on a mother goat and her young.
Only to be tricked out of their plans when we stood up and whistled to scare the goats away.
To watch mature male moose exaggerate their walk toward each other rocking their heads back and forth in an attempt to intimidate the other.

As a non hunter turned hunter, trapper, retired Guide Outfitter and a Environmentalist. I have learned through experience by working closely with wildlife that carnivores need to be controlled to protect ungulates for our future generations.

Norm Blaney
Kelowna B.C

BINGO, well said, great perspective! I think if the tree hugging hippys had any idea how many new born ungulates were killed every spring, they'd want more predators being shot. Should start postin videos of that, a sow grizz shakin the livin crap out of a baby deer, then feasting on it with her two cubs, not killing the predators will disrupt the balance.

[Stinky Buffalo]

Very well written!

[CNP]

https://www.facebook.com/20136213997...type=3&theater

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[270person]

Originally Posted by CNP

https://www.facebook.com/20136213997...type=3&theater

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Kinda dispels popular thoughts of the provincial government being on a mission to ban hunting doesn't it?

They might not get everything right but a lot of the paranoia is just that.

[Tarmac]

Thanks all for the kind words. I am proud of my Pop and all the hard work he has done to protect our hunting heritage. He's getting on in his years but still has the fire in his belly and passion for our love of conservation! If you guys are interested, I can be found on Instagram at tylerblaney

Keep the fire lit!

Cheers!

Tarmac