�
Anthony Marr, who will be speaking at the rally� says the government isn�t
managing the province�s grizzly bear population appropriately, and that
they are caving in (and have been doing so for the last half century) to
trophy hunters� demands. (�Some of them are trophy hunters themselves.�)�
The
WCWC says independent biologists peg the provincial grizzly population at
about 4,000-7,000, but the BC Ministry of Environment, Lands and Parks
says its studies place the population at 10,000-13,000.
�The
grizzly population is decreasing over the long term - slowly over the last
200 years - but we can�t say by how much at present,� says Nancy Bircher,
the director of the wildlife branch at the ministry�
Bircher says about 300 Grizzlies are legally killed each year by people
with licenses, another 50 are termed �nuisance kills� - due to conflict
with humans - and about 90 die as unreported kills or from poachers.
�The
poaching figure is absolutely unfounded and hugely at odds with what
international authorities report,� says Marr. �They estimate a continental
average of one bear poached for every bear legally hunted. They also
estimate that BC is among the most poached amongst all the North American
states and provinces. According to this, the poached/hunted ratio should
be more than one to one, not one to three.�
He
says the province is intentionally skewing the facts to favour hunters.
�They
project as high a population number and as low a poaching number as
possible to give the general public the impression there are so many
grizzlies that not only can they be hunted, but that they should be
hunted, otherwise they�ll turn aggressive against humans,� he says. He
adds that the no-hunting policy in US parks like Yellowstone and Glacier
show that bears do not become aggressive to humans if not hunted��
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