The provincial PRO Grizzly Bear Hunting Lobby seem to have come up with the ideal spokesperson to advocate on their behalf in a guy who recently killed a 17-year-old spring grizzly for meat in his freezer (Prince George Citizen, Aug. 16, 2017).
Well I'm not impressed. I'm sure the right whales would be good eating and nobody seems to be advocating for that, as their numbers are perilously low. And I'm pretty sure very few people are killing grizzlies for food anyway - it would cost a heck of a lot more than any other meat. The whole food argument is a feeble excuse to defend the hunting of these animals.
If you were to map extent of grizzly bear range from 1800 to 2017 you would find the area to be ever smaller. The grizzly population is affected by the necessary killing of dangerous bears, poaching and animals being killed by vehicles and trains in addition to legal hunting. A reasonable person can deduce that the species is in big trouble.
The argument that the banning of the hunt will harm the economics of guide-outfitting is true. But surely, we can't just hunt a species to extinction because there's money to be made?
There was money in whale hunting too and we finally (mostly) stopped that.
I would recommend that if Mr. Hamilton really likes to eat bear meat he should find a younger (than 17 years), fat black bear (in the fall) that is well away from garbage dumps and shoot it for his freezer. It will taste better and he won't be contributing to the decline and extinction of grizzlies.
Keith Gordon
Fort St. James
