Written by a very good friend of mine. Thought i would pass it on.. Might open some eyes.
Hi there, my name is Dave, and I am a trophy hunter.
But let's really take a look at this issue. First off, I spend over 100 days in the field hunting and camping and hiking per year. Hunting is a huge part of my life, and I would never kill something just for the fun of it, or just for sport.
The only animals that are a true "Trophy hunt" in BC are grizzly bears, dog species, and cats. Blac
k bears, you cannot waste the meat, and you cannot hunt a white phase bear.
Every other animal by law in BC, the meat must be consumed and not wasted.
So why not eat these specific animals? Because that is really the debate here.
I have elk, deer, and black bear heads on my wall. Would you have a problem with those "trophies" being there? They are trophies to me (maybe not record size) but I reflect on the effort that went into harvesting them, and the people I spent time with in the wilds. Of course all of the meat was consumed in these animals. I haven't bought farmed meat in a few years now. Could I have thrown away the head and horns instead? Sure, I could have, but instead I chose to preserve the memory of that hunt. If it was feeding my ego, I wouldn't put the small ones on the wall!
Why would you have a record book!? I mean the ego of these trophy hunters! The Boone and Crocket records club was originally established to try and have hunters select male animals, instead of the breeding females. One single male animal will often breed with 10 or more females. Females have higher fat content, and in years past, hunters would select females over males, as it was only about putting meat on the table for their families. By creating a record book, and having people shoot males instead of the females, actually increases the populations, and BTW it worked! And hunters still got meat on the table! Having a trophy sized head on the wall should not offend you. Its meat, by law, cannot be wasted!
So lets go into the real question here. Why do we as hunters not eat the meat of grizzlies, coyotes, wolves, cougar, bobcat, and lynx? And, why if at all, should we shoot these species?
There are several reasons, I'll start with some facts you probably didn't know.
- The meat of these species is considered inedible. Its against our societies rules to eat dog and cat and other predatory animals. You will never see dog and cat in the store like they do have in many other cultures. They carry many diseases and parasites such as Rabies, 24 species of nematodes (roundworms), 21 species of cestodes (tapeworms), nine species of trematodes (flukes), heartworms, and three species of acanthocephalia (spiny-headed worms). They are also susceptible to being infested by fleas, ticks or mites. Also, about two thirds of all wolf carcasses examined have thousands of Hydatid Disease Tapeworms. This disease is easily transferable to humans. I could go on and on with the list of diseases these species carry. Simply put, their meat is considered inedible as they are full of parasites and can carry a plethora of diseases.
However, the fur of all fur bearing animals must legally be taken.
So your next question should logically then be, why kill them at all? Why not just leave them alone? We have grizzly tours and having wolves in our ecosystem is a good thing to keep deer populations under control right?
Bear cubs actually have 25% higher survival rate in hunted populations, as compared to protected (no hunting) areas. This includes black bears and grizzlies. Why is that? Mature boar bears kill and eat cubs. Doing this puts the sow into heat and lets that boar breed her again. Hunters of course target mature boars (it is illegal to harvest a bear in a family unit, or under the age of 2), and by doing so, the cub survival rate is considerably higher, in hunted populations. Who would have thought that protecting bears in the Great Bear Rainforest, is actually harder on their population!
Yeah but you've got all these trophy hunters running around shooting all the grizzlies! The populations will go down obviously! Wrong again.... Grizzly bears are on a strict draw system. The province is divided up into different Management Units, and in each MU they have a number of predators, and a number of prey that they want hunters to keep in balance. There are a limited number of tags given out in each area, and the harvest numbers are kept record of, to make sure we do not over harvest an area. Most MU areas in BC allow one or two grizzly tags to be handed out. 90% of grizzly tags are never filled.
Another major issue is human contact, take for example cougars in California. An average of 100 ``problem'' cougars are killed each year in California by state officials -- about TWICE the number killed annually by hunters before the 1972 ban. So why is that? How would a hunting ban mean more get shot? Predatory animals are very territorial by nature. By not keeping their populations in check, they have offspring, and this offspring is forced into new territory. Often times they end up near schools, and playgrounds, and communities, where, they are not appreciated. If you had an agressive cougar in your back yard with children playing, you would want rid of it too. Hunters hunt near their communities often and keep the population in check. So again, stopping hunting these animals, often actually results in more getting killed. Most of which are incinerated and no part of that animal is used.
The same happens with bears where the fear of man is taken out of them. In fact almost all attacks on people, happen in no hunting areas.
So what about wolves, I mean why would you want to kill a wolf?! First off, in BC at the moment we are having a wolf epidemic. The population literally is out of our control. The wolf population can not be, and never has been affected by hunters. Very few are taken each year by hunters, and even by trappers. Yet they will literally eat through species. Their are many different species populations in danger in many areas of the province of literally being wiped out by wolves. Mountain caribou in southern BC was eaten down to a herd of 20, and moose populations are plummeting in many areas of the province (even a total closure to hunting in some areas). The wolves will continue to eat until most of the prey is gone (do some reading on Idaho wolf population) unless their numbers are brought back under control. These moose are a huge food source for many First nations families, in many areas of the province. Wolves need to eat about 18 deer sized animals per year, but in fact kill far more than that, often at times they will not even consume the prey. The wolf population is literally out of control, and will continue to go this way unless something is done. Most hunters have not shot one, and will never get a shot at one, they are just too smart an animal. However their populations do need to be managed along with all the other predators and prey species.
The biggest reason for hunting is to stop HUGE populations spikes and crashes among different species. We have more than 20 big game animal species in BC. I'll bet most people couldn't name half. If populations were to be in control of themselves you would see the predator population climb to crazy proportions, only to starve themselves out, as the prey population crashed. Hunters really want to see species thrive! We hunters help balance the many different animal populations around the province, without people hunting fur bearing animals (or as you call ego hungry trophy hunters) this province would be a much less diverse place.
Hunting is freedom, a tie to our ancestors, a family tradition, peace, contentment, happiness, joy, sweat, close calls, exploring, hiking, stealth, boring, exhilarating, tiring, satisfying, challenging, and a thousand other things. It's there for anyone to discover, and judge for yourself if you want to take part in it. But please, "don't knock it until you've tried it." That's the only way you'll ever know for sure. Hunters want to see more wildlife out there than anyone. Keeping the populations balanced, is what government wildlife managers all around the world use hunting for.
For the record, I have hunted grizzly for 54 days in the last 4 years. I have passed on many many smaller bears and sows, but have never taken one myself. I am looking for that real old crusty cub killing brute of a boar, just trying to do my part to help them out.
. Although in all honesty I don't doubt that most bear populations can support a controlled hunt.
