Vancouver Sun editorial: BC should ban trophy bear hunting

Killing the animals for sport is a practice that belongs in a bygone era

Vancouver Sun Editorial September 5, 2013

It is past time to put an end to the provincially condoned slaughter of bears in wilderness areas along B.C.’s coast.

The long-standing practice is part of a so-called trophy hunt in which tourists compete in a lottery for as many as 3,800 licences for the “harvesting” of bears in designated areas.

Hunters are accompanied by knowledgeable guides and use crossbows or high-powered rifles equipped with half-mile scopes. Some 300 grizzlies are killed annually, usually while feeding at salmon streams or by the shoreline. They are skinned, their heads and paws cut off, then left to rot in the wild. No part of the animal is eaten or used in any other manner…

To read the rest of the editorial please visit the Vancouver Sun website.

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Coastal wolf with a salmon in its month.
Photo by Dene Rossouw.