We have all been there. Someone at work side-stepped your authority and got what they wanted without you finding out when it was too late.
Anti-Hunting and fishing groups (which are predominantly based in larger cities) are attempting (in big and small ways) to change how rural towns and villages run their hunting and fishing conservation efforts in the U.S.
Tom from the Black Bear Blog states it quite bluntly in his excellent blog posting. A portion of it reads,
When you have a situation where a large metropolitan area makes up the majority population of a county, the will of the city is imposed on those in the rural areas of that county. This is one example of how putting control of hunting, fishing and trapping into the hands of county officials, will for all intent and purposes end the sports.
You have to read the rest of his article at: http://mainehuntingtoday.com/bbb/?p=574.
Obviously, this article is from an American perspective but it triggered my thinking to realize that this is already happening in Ontario.
Currently, our Provincial Government runs our hunting and fishing resources with a majority of their funds coming from those of us who hunt and fish. It seems like every year there are more and more restrictions placed/added on these regulations. It is as if they are trying to ‘lull’ us into surrender through regulation overload. Our license fees are going to useless projects like “Bear Hotlines” for the public to aks questions about the bears eating their garbage and destroying their property.
I can imagine one of those calls now,
Caller: Hello. I would like to report a bear acting aggressively around my house by tearing apart my shed…
Bear Wise Operator: Sir have you cleaned your barbeque after use? Where do you keep your garbage? Is it stored in an airtight, titanium galvanized, government certified holding tank? Do you feed the birds? I would suggest you let the bear do what he wants. After all…he probably is just checking for forest fires….
Caller: BANG!! Sounds of reloading in the background…
Bear Wise Operator: Sir was that a gun? Did you shoot the bear?!
Caller: No it was not a gun. It was my government registered, forged steel, high velocity lead projection unit and I was showing the bear how it worked!
Ontario Out of Doors magazine reports that several hundred thousand dollars are going into this bear hotline while ministy vehicles sit idle with no funds for gas or field agents.
The cancellation of the spring bear hunt was the result campaign based out of the Toronto area. Banking on rich ‘City Folk’ who pressured the Government to cancel a spring bear hunt through a very ‘emotional’ based campaign that ignored good science and conservation principles. Now those of us here in the rural areas live within an environment with a huge bear population. Tom’s quote above summarizes my feelings on this issue.
Those of us who hunt and fish need to be aware of these emotional campaigns. We need to be ready to call our Members of Parliament. We should be writing letters to the MNR letting them now how their ‘made at the desk’ guidlines impact those of us ‘in the field’.
A word to the Anti’s…
We are on to you!
Bill Anderson
Muskoka Outdoors
