Printed from www.timminspress.com web site Tuesday, August 14, 2007 - ©
2007 Timmins Daily Press
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Bear dump revolting
Monday, August 13, 2007 - 10:00
Editorial - For the past eight years, the provincial government has been
trying to convince Northerners that the cancellation of the spring bear hunt
is a good wildlife management practice.
Then-premier Mike Harris buried the hunt in January 1999, claiming that too
many bear cubs were being orphaned by hunters who mistakenly, and illegally,
shoot mother bears. The spring hunt targeted male black bears.
Northerners were outraged. When the former Conservative cancelled the hunt,
it destroyed a multimillion-dollar tourism venture. Successive governments,
of both Conservative and Liberal stripes, stuck to the same argument of
saving cubs from being orphaned.
Harris, at the time, was under fire from the International Fund for Animal
Welfare to cancel the hunt. The animal-rights activists threatened to stage
a media blitz, showing orphaned cubs on billboards and on television ads,
just prior to a provincial election. The IFAW planned to target the
anti-bear hunt campaign heavily in eight key ridings in southern Ontario the
Tories feared could swing Liberal.
There has always been public debate as to whether the hunt was cancelled for
scientific or political reasons. But the government has always maintained it
was to prevent the cruelty of having cubs orphaned.
Late last week, Bill Barker, a fall bear-hunting guide in the Kirkland Lake
area made a shocking discovery. Located on Crown land is a dump site for the
disposing of dead bears. When nuisance bears are put down by police in the
Kirkland Lake area, the carcasses are dumped at the site by the Ministry of
Natural Resources. Barker estimated there were at least 10 bears, including
cubs, left to rot at the site.
The bear-body dump is located in the home riding of Natural Resources
Minister David Ramsay.
According to staff with the MNR, the dump site has been used by the ministry
for the past four years. In municipalities where landfill sites don't permit
dead-animal disposal, similar dumps are set up for bears.
Barber took MP Charlie Angus (NDP - Timmins-James Bay) to the bears' mass
grave. He was appalled.
"It is simple - the fact is that this government has abandoned wildlife
management," Angus told Osprey News reporter Rick Owen, in a story that ran
in Saturday's edition of The Daily Press. "This government has underfunded
the Ministry of Natural Resources."
It is ironic that the official reason for cancelling the spring bear hunt
was to end the so-called inhumanity of it when the alternative is to shoot
nuisance bears and let them rot on Crown land.
Ministry staff are not the ones to blame. MNR employees simply follow the
direction given to them by their political bosses. Without proper funding,
the relocation of the majority of nuisance bears is financially unfeasible.
Because of the growing problem, and limited resources, police end up
handling nuisance bears. It is a task that really doesn't belong in their
jurisdiction, it should fall back to trained wildlife professionals.
The responsibility for the shooting and disposal of the animals ultimately
falls with politicians in Queen's Park.
It's time to make a decision based on science and not politics.
Bring back the spring hunt.
Bear Dump
Moderator: Excalibur Marketing Dude
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ratherbefishin
- Posts: 68
- Joined: Sun Apr 15, 2007 10:01 am
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A couple of years ago, just two days before the opening of bear season, we just happened to witness Ministry of Natural Resources employees throwing a 350-pound dead bear over an 80-foot bank right beside one of our hunting sites in our bear management area.
They thought they were hiding it. That bear had no tags in its ears, so according to the rules, that must have been that bear's first offense.
That bear, full of lethal drugs was going to be left in the wild for other animals to eat. We could just imagine the eagles, ravens, vultures, etc. eating this poisoned bear and then, while in flight, go tumbling to the ground once the effects of the drugs hit them.
And what would happen to all the ground animals that would also eat the bear, like wolves, fox, marten, fishers, etc.?
We felt it was wrong, so they were given the opportunity to dispose of it properly.
The bear was returned to the front step of the Terrace Bay ministry building. In fact, we heard that the bear had a note under its paw that read, "Keep up the good work managing our resources. You just thought I was a nuisance when I was alive."
It was not disputed when we expressed our concern that this was not the only bear that has been killed and disposed of in such a manner. So you have to wonder just how many Bears are being killed by the ministry and hushed up?
If this is happening in the Kirkland Lake area and the Terrace Bay area, don't think for a second that it is not happening in every district across the province, including Sudbury.
It is a disgusting and pathetic excuse for wildlife management. Ontario's resources are being wasted by the very people who are supposed to be managing them. It makes you wonder if all the other ministries are being handled the same way.
The Bear Wise program is a pathetic joke and another waste of money. The fact the government thinks Northerners don't know the link between the increase in nuisance Bears and the cancellation of the spring bear hunt is infuriating. The MNR will continue to give one futile excuse after another for the bear encounters in the North as long as they are fooling the people of Toronto, where the votes are. It is time for the lies and the deceit to stop. It's time to reinstatement the spring bear hunt.
Terry Wood
Terrace Bay
They thought they were hiding it. That bear had no tags in its ears, so according to the rules, that must have been that bear's first offense.
That bear, full of lethal drugs was going to be left in the wild for other animals to eat. We could just imagine the eagles, ravens, vultures, etc. eating this poisoned bear and then, while in flight, go tumbling to the ground once the effects of the drugs hit them.
And what would happen to all the ground animals that would also eat the bear, like wolves, fox, marten, fishers, etc.?
We felt it was wrong, so they were given the opportunity to dispose of it properly.
The bear was returned to the front step of the Terrace Bay ministry building. In fact, we heard that the bear had a note under its paw that read, "Keep up the good work managing our resources. You just thought I was a nuisance when I was alive."
It was not disputed when we expressed our concern that this was not the only bear that has been killed and disposed of in such a manner. So you have to wonder just how many Bears are being killed by the ministry and hushed up?
If this is happening in the Kirkland Lake area and the Terrace Bay area, don't think for a second that it is not happening in every district across the province, including Sudbury.
It is a disgusting and pathetic excuse for wildlife management. Ontario's resources are being wasted by the very people who are supposed to be managing them. It makes you wonder if all the other ministries are being handled the same way.
The Bear Wise program is a pathetic joke and another waste of money. The fact the government thinks Northerners don't know the link between the increase in nuisance Bears and the cancellation of the spring bear hunt is infuriating. The MNR will continue to give one futile excuse after another for the bear encounters in the North as long as they are fooling the people of Toronto, where the votes are. It is time for the lies and the deceit to stop. It's time to reinstatement the spring bear hunt.
Terry Wood
Terrace Bay