I respect the views of individuals who do not approve of hunting as a legal activity.
However, if your paper is going to publish cartoons to represent this point of view, how about cartoons to show how ski and golf course developments destroy valuable wildlife habitat? What about farming practices which do the same? How about cartoons that show how chickens and eggs are mass produced and the living conditions the chickens must endure? What about feedlot conditions for beef and pork production or the life of a dairy cow so that individuals can enjoy their morning latte?
If these topics are too controversial, how about cartoons on the effects of hydro, oil and gas, mining, forestry, highways urban sprawl and land development as just a few of many examples that have a far greater impact on grizzlies and other wildlife than a few hunters?
How about cartoons showing the large amount of money hunting and fishing organizations raise each year for habitat and wildlife protection and enhancement? How much are the individuals that protest against these activities contributing to saving our wildlife and habitat?
Urbanization and the spread of man’s activities globally has impacted all forms of wildlife to the point where nature can no longer take its own course. We now must try and manage our environment and wildlife; not an easy task.
Unfortunately, Walt Disney’s portrayal of wildlife is more accepted by many individuals than scientific research.
Provincial biologists have determined through a variety of methods that the province has a healthy grizzly bear population and accordingly have allocated a harvest quota controlled by a limited-entry hunting draw that ensures only a very small number of bears are harvested each year in proportion to their total population
Some studies have even shown that the harvest of mature males can actually increase the population as mature males will seek out and kill cubs in the spring in order to breed the females.
It is unfortunate that the media tries to sensationalize events rather than adhering to accurate investigative reporting. Had they done that, they should have reported that this hunter took a mature male bear, under legal hunting authority and that the bear’s head, shown in the widely circulated photo, was in fact, fully attached to the rest of the hide and the feet.
The hunt was also conducted with the knowledge and support of at least one or more of the First Nation’s individuals living in the area.
Theodore Roosevelt said it best: “In a civilized and cultivated country, wild animals continue to exist at all when preserved by sportsmen.
Then excellent people who protest against all hunting and consider sportsmen as enemies of wildlife are ignorant of the fact that in reality, the genuine sportsman is by all odds the most important factor in keeping the larger and more valuable wild creatures from total extermination.”
John Todd
Campbell River