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2012-07-31 at 14:52

LETTER: Bring back bear hunt

By Kevin Palmer
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Maybe, not likely, someone will wake up and bring back the spring bear hunt.

Not only did removing this sport hurt the economy by a few hundred thousand dollars a region, it also created the destruction of animals in an uncontrolled, unmanaged manner. Surely someone in the government will recognize that this issue may cause an unnecessary death in one of our neighbourhoods eventually if left unchecked.

When bears are taken through the Ministry's controlled hunting program, the process is tightly managed. The hunters come in from all over the United States and Canada. The economy rolls forward, tourism receipts go up and people in Northwestern Ontario are somewhat protected from the bear nuisance problem.

This is a silly, silly thing to even be wasting time on. Bring back that spring bear hunt and go back to managing our wildlife properly through attrition, proper licensing and enhanced economic development for tourism. In my years with Travel Manitoba, any idea how many times that we promoted the spring bear hunt across the United States knowing about the goofy policies which exist here?

Somebody should change things.
 

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Comments

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millie brendza says:
Why is it when there is overpopulation of any species all people can think of is killing them?
8/1/2012 7:43:43 AM
RelaxinginMurillo says:
We live in the rural. We keep our garbage indoors until dump-day, don't feed the birds anymore, don't have apple trees, and don't leave out any dog food bowls.
No problems with bears yet.. but trust me, if a bear is aggressively threatening my family, it will be dispatched.
8/1/2012 1:08:26 PM
ircorrect says:
I'm pretty sure it wasn't a human idea to kill things off to cure overpopulation. In fact I'm 100% certain that killing things off is natures way to deal with overpopulation.

I could argue that by not killing the bears to control their population we are going against natures wishes.
8/2/2012 10:01:05 AM
tsb says:
We're going against nature's wishes by producing so much waste and altering or removing so much of the forest, which disrupts or destroys bear habitat, forcing them into cities. Climate change is also going against nature's wishes.

Or you could make the other argument, that since humans are natural, every single thing we do, from making love to murdering and eating each other to polluting the land and changing ecosystems, is "natural".

Bears didn't need organized hunting schemes to keep their population in check 400 years ago. But we've changed something and I do think a limited hunt combined with improved efforts to disrupt bear habitat less and leave less "bear food" (garbage) lying around will help with the bear overpopulation. Just like with the deer, this isn't healthy, it isn't natural, and it is our fault. We need to take responsibility for our actions and fix it.
8/2/2012 6:01:46 PM
localdog says:
Leave it to the species most guilty of overpopulation and resource destruction to think that using weapons to kill animals is in any way "natures way".

There are about 80 thousand bears in Ontario compared to an estimated 13 million people. It's pretty clear who the real nuisance is.
8/2/2012 6:41:28 PM
ircorrect says:
I didn't say "using weapons to kill animals nature's way" [but it is (claws and teeth are weapons too)]. I said killing things is natures way of dealing with overpopulation. It is in fact the only way to deal with overpopulation. If there are too many of a species, some of those creatures dying is the only way to lower the population and therefore solve the overpopulation problem.

I didn't say or even imply that humans aren't responsible (at least partially) for these problems. And yes, humans are overpopulating the earth and therefore either we need to colonize another planet or the ocean floor or a few humans need to die.

It's not pleasant. Death sucks for most people/creatures. But it doesn't change the fact that it needs to happen in order to maintain balance.

Relocation just moves the overpopulation form one place to another to cause problems.
8/15/2012 10:47:18 AM
canrebel53 says:
I really don't see where all these so called bears are, the job I have takes me down the out skirts of town and cities spraying gravel roads. And as of today I haven't seen 1 bear, 10 years ago it was different. And since we have so many deer running around proves the point that the bear population is down.
8/4/2012 10:27:37 AM
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