British Columbia is a wonderful province, with the slogan Super Natural BC. This province has mountains, lakes, vineyards, history and wildlife. The range of wildlife outside my door I think I have made known to you through my blog. People here love and try to sustain the  wildlife, everyday and unique species.

We have been promoting our province as a place to come see nature in its natural setting. And unfortunately, if you are so inclined, come and kill our wildlife. In particular, most of us are appalled and ashamed to admit, come for trophy game. Our grizzlies!

The BC government, despite public opinion (which is overwhelming in support of abolishing grizzly trophy hunting), still supports this ‘sport’. Their claims are that we have an abundance of grizzlies (based on whose numbers?) and this sport brings in big tourist dollars. In a time when the death of Cecil has brought this ‘sport’ to the forefront of media attention, it seemed important to bring our issue to your attention.

I believe that sport hunting, with the goal of getting game for food, is tolerable. But killing any animal simply to be able to hang its head, or any other part on your wall, stand back and say – ‘hey aren’t I great? I killed this animal for the heck of it’, is way out of date and a sign that as a species man has not travelled that far along the evolutionary path. Our grizzlies are such a magnificent animal. I don’t need to anthropomorphize them or wallow in their social structure or level of intelligence. It is simply the fact of their existence in the great scheme of things that should permit them to co-exist with us. We have enough collective ‘guilt’, if you will, for intruding more and more on their natural turf. Killing them for the ‘joy’ of the hunt and the trophy adds insult to injury. Environmental tourism, in particular photography tourism is gaining an important foothold here. Not a smart move to kill of the animals tourists come to see, on the coast and in the interior.

So I am including a few photographs of the grizzlies in my area and a link to a petition that has been around for awhile demanding that the BC government change their policy. We are the only province that still allows this type of hunting.

If you feel so inclined, no matter where you live, please ‘sign’ this petition and have a voice in such a critical and much needed change.

https://www.change.org/p/protect-grizzly-bears-by-banning-the-trophy-hunt-in-bc?recruiter=165138604&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=copylink

Categories: environment, Grizzlies, grizzly young, inquisitive grizzlies, Kootenay Lake, lardeau valley, Nature Photography, Photography, trophy hunting, trophy hunting petition

Tags: environment, grizzlies, Grizzly bears, Inquisitive grizzlies, Lardeau River, Lardeau Valley, natural habitat, nature photography, petition against trophy hunting, trophy hunting