Spring Bear Hunt

[gsambray 172]

I am wondering whats going on with the spring bear hunt. i have heard that there are still talks about it and then nothing ever happens about it. is there anything us bear hunters could do to get things rollinbg faster or maybe get people realizing that it is a good thing to have. i'm not sure if a patitionj would help since there are probably so many of them out there. and i am sure that people must have noticed the increase in bears ever since the cancellation. if anyone has any info on this or would want to help start something to maybe get the government off ther a$! and realize that it did help with the management of bears, please let me know.

Thanks

[Resource Pimp 60]

Sad to say its probably hopeless to see the spring bear hunt come back unless a few people get killed by bears. The tree huggers and sprocket ferries have used the power of their vote to extort the governments cancelation policy.

[gsambray 172]

so we just gotta start feeding them to the bears. lol it might just work

[Monks 164]

Actually you need to contact your local MNR and get them talking, they had all the data, it just did not disappear. Then you need to contact the local politicians and find out whom of them supports the spring bear hunt. Then you need to be prepared to donate your time and effort for a cause. The hunt was cancelled on politics alone. The scientific data was their too support a spring bear hunt and was not considered during the decision to cancel the spring bear hunt. A politician leveraged this issue for some votes and won. A shame really. Yes it can come back it has happened else where. However do you see how much effort goes into an anti-hunting campaign, not too mention the $. The cancellation of the spring bear hunt hurt a lot of our local tourist camps and local economies. I am sure if a responsible, proactive campaign was lead by the right people who were professional and did not refer to antihunters or antihunting groups in a negative fashion. Things would and could change. However such a venture would have to be done correctly. The old stigma as sighted below of "treehuggers" and sprocket ferries" and saying people need to be killed by bears is playing right into the wrong hands. Come on name calling in this day and age? Did not get you anywhere on the playground way back when and certainly is getting you no further in life now.

All interested groups need to be on the same page with a common agenda, that would include local hunting organizations in all communities, tourist operators and the general hunting public. When a mass group is organized and passionate and presents itself in a respectful and professional fashion the right people will listen. Hey I am in, I rarely hunt bear, hunt about everything else, but feel it is a useful management tool, a renewable resource and important source of income for our economy. And I feel hunting and utilizing our resources is a priveledge those whom choose to do so, should be able to enjoy. Personally I enjoy feeding my kids organic red meat and fish, my choice, my effort but at least I have the choice. And yes I enjoy fishing and hunting for the act of just doing these activities whether or not I catch a fish or harvest an animal. Those who do not or feel differently can choose to lead their lives their own way.

Enough of that though, get together folks and good things will happen.

[gsambray 172]

as i am an avid bear hunter i will take your advice and maybe who knows in a few years and alot of work maybe some good will come out of it all. I am going to be in contact with my local mnr and start pounding the pavement to find out politicians who are in agreement with the spring hunt. it is the spring hunt that got me interested in hunting bears and would love to see it come back so in the future when i have kids i can take them and hopefully get them involved as well. i agree with the name calling bit and if said in the wrong pretext or said to the wrong people it can hurt any hard work that someone has done for this cause. I will keep everyone interested posted on my progress with this and maybe even be able to get more of us hunters involved and hopefully get it back.

[Pumpkinhead 2]

As Monks stated the hunt was cancelled for political reasons (to appease voters in swing ridings in the vote rich 905 and 416 area codes) so all the studies and data in support of the hunt will not help one bit. The hunt will still be treated like a political trump card as long as it has value politically.The Liberals,NDP and Tories all have different platforms and ideas on just about every issue but THEY all agree that they will NOT reinstate the spring bear hunt.They know the hunt carries political weight so in principle they have formed a loose agreement not to use the hunt as campaign ammo. The trick I think would be to get the parties to agree to reinstate the hunt no matter who is elected. If all 3 parties were to publicly state that the hunt is a good conservation tool,its good for tourism etc, then the anti- bear hunt crowd would not have the political wind to pit one party against another.Remove the political element and it becomes a dead issue. Getting them to agree might be a challenge but if all 3 parties think they are doing the right thing for the North and it will not hurt them politically then it might work.

[Kayaker 38]

Here was the start of the cancellation

Manager, Corporate Affairs and Communications

Canadian Outdoor Heritage Alliance

In 1999 the Ontario Conservative government bowed to pressure from a small group of animal rights activists and a wealthy Ontario industrialist, and without any consultation with outdoors experts and overriding the opinion of government biologists, cancelled the annual spring black bear hunt.

On November 10th the newly elected Liberal government finally released a long awaited report on the results of that cancellation: a report the former government had kept under wraps since August.

A special Nuisance Bear Committee, set up in 2002 to study the ballooning black bear population, recommended the reinstatement of the hunt. In early December the Hon. David Ramsay, announced that the hunt would not be reinstated.

To understand the hunt cancellation, and the problems caused by that action, we have to go back before 1999 and examine the path that led to the government's decision.

Robert Schad is listed by Canadian Business Magazine as the 45th richest man in Canada. He likes bears… all kinds of bears… but in particular he likes Ontario black bears. He and his minions struggled against public opinion for many years trying to get the province's bear hunt cancelled. They bombarded the public with radio, billboards and television advertising claiming the bears were endangered, they were being killed to extinction for their gall bladders, and hunting black bears over bait was unethical.

His plea was totally emotional and had little to do with truth. The fact that the spring hunt was no threat at all to the healthy black bear population of Ontario (estimated to be at least 100,000), was of little or no importance to Schad and his doomsayers.

A group of like-minded supporters, including the Animal Alliance of Canada, the Federation of Ontario Naturalists, the World Wildlife Fund and, of course the Schad Foundation met, named themselves the Bear Alliance, and planned a concerted effort to force the cancellation of the bear hunt. (Later the Federation of Ontario Naturalists withdrew from the Bear Alliance when it realized the whole effort had little to do with conservation.)

The Bear Alliance tried many different heart-wrenching messages to get the general public on their side and pressure the government to cancel the hunt. But nothing seemed to work - the apathetic public just didn't seem to believe, or care, that Ontario's bears were endangered and the hunt was unethical.

But finally, accidentally, they hit upon a winner. In 1996 the Alliance began a poster campaign claiming bear cubs were being orphaned because their mothers were being killed for their gall bladders. The campaign wasn't particularly successful.

But some bright light realized that orphaned cubs did have an appeal to urban women in southern Ontario (where the only bears are on television.) So the Bear Alliance changed its strategy and began claiming that 30% of the bears shot in the spring were nursing females and the hunt regularly orphaned more than 1,000 bear cubs.

The government waved them off and refused to discuss cancellation of the hunt.

Robert Schad almost quit in frustration.

But at the last minute he decided to cough up another $200,000 and left it to the Bear Alliance to devise a strategy to force the government to comply with his emotional demands

In 1998 the Bear Alliance contacted the powerful International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) and hired it to spearhead a political solution led by Robert Sinclair. Sinclair was a Tory organizer and was behind the Harris Conservative Government's rise to power in Ontario. He actually worked as an adviser in the Minister of Natural Resources' office, as well as being a powerful organizer for the IFAW.

The IFAW was well known for their emotional plea to stop the Newfoundland Seal Hunt. They pioneered the use of a sad-eyed baby seal and film of Newfoundlanders clubbing the seals to death. In spite of the fact the white-coated baby seal with the sad eyes had never been a part of the seal hunt, the proven emotional power of the picture was well understood by the IFAW masterminds. They agreed to accept the challenge of shutting down the Ontario bear hunt.

Sinclair and the IFAW decided the best approach was to threaten the Conservatives with a loss in the ballot box in the next election. They chose the affluent Hamilton-Niagara "Golden Triangle" as being ripe to be plucked. They knew the people in that area were well educated and urban and really didn't know anything at all about bears or hunting.

The committee came up with the idea of distributing 15,000 videos that depicted sad, lonely bear cubs that had been orphaned by hunters who had shot their mothers, unethical baiting and, of course, the cruel use of dogs. One scene in the video, which was shot in the USA, showed a bear being shot out of a tree and ripped to pieces by the hunters' dogs.

The issue made a powerful impact, particularly on women, who reacted with pity to the baby bears.

The campaign ran through the fall of 1998 and was often brought up in caucus by December. Polls showed the Conservatives behind the Liberals in public opinion. Backbenchers pleaded with Mike Harris the premier to do something as they worried they would be toppled by the IFAW's campaign.

Since urban non-hunters, who really didn't understand the situation but had been convinced the north was littered with orphaned cubs, represented many more votes than pro-hunting organizations, or northern residents, the premier reached the conclusion the spring hunt could not be defended.

Early in January, Shad met Harris - at the premier's invitation - in a small terminal for private aircraft at Toronto's Pearson Airport. Schad later told reporters he explained why he was opposed to the hunt and the premier agreed with him. Schad claimed the premier said, "I think you're right… we'll do something." On Jan 15, 1999, the Minister of Natural Resources, John Snobelen, without any consultation with government biologists who knew the hunt was sustainable and the claims of orphaned bear cubs were false, announced that the spring hunt was cancelled.

The hew and cry that resulted from the cancellation fell on deaf ears and outfitters who had already accepted deposits for the spring hunt, mostly from American hunters, were forced to return thousands of dollars. It was estimated that the immediate result of the cancellation of the hunt cost northern Ontario communities about $44 Million in the first year. A recent unofficial poll by the National Firearms Association shows that 1 in 5 outfitters (20%) have disappeared since the hunt was cancelled.

Almost immediately hunters and trappers noted an increase in the bear population. Although nobody was killed the number of "nuisance" bears strolling through northern communities searching for food increased.

In the next few years communities noted increases of as much as 600% in the number of bears that had to be trapped, tranquilized and removed from city cores.

One of the direct results of the cancellation of the hunt, was the formation of the Canadian Outdoor Heritage Alliance (COHA), a hunting, fishing, and trapping advocacy organization formed in 1999, by a group of outdoor organizations to spearhead their worry that government was no longer making wildlife decisions based on true scientific research and biological studies.

One of the COHA initiatives resulted in more than 130 northern Ontario municipalities writing the Ontario government, demanding the return of the spring bear hunt as the growing population of black bears was presenting, in their minds, an increasing danger to their citizens.

After three years of pressure from hunting groups and COHA the (then) Minister of Natural Resources, Jerry Ouellette, decided to put an end to the controversy by establishing a Nuisance Bear Committee to study the situation and advise the government on any action they felt was necessary.

The committee met regularly and finally produced a long awaited report in August of 2003, however as the Conservative government was in the midst of losing an election, the report was filed and never released. It wasn't until the new Minister was appointed by the Liberal government, and because of election promises to provide a more open government, that the report was released. It can be read at: http//:www.mnr.gov.on.ca/mnr/nbrc/

A few weeks after the release of the report, when outdoor groups were convinced the hunt was coming back, David Ramsay, the (new) Minister of Natural Resources, after much hurried consultation with his advisers and his premier (prior to the election the recently elected premier, then leader of the opposition, promised southern Ontario voters that should he be elected he would not bring back the hunt.) announced that the hunt was not sustainable and would not be reinstated.

Municipalities, biologists, outdoor experts and organizations such as COHA, are troubled by the announcement and look ahead to even more nuisance bear problems throughout northern Ontario. At the writing of this article black bears are still in hibernation and northern communities are bracing themselves for bear trouble in the coming spring when hungry black bears again will be searching for food in their streets.