Dressed in a black cowboy hat, B.C. Premier Christy Clark beams at the camera as she accepts the President’s Award from the Guide Outfitters Association of B.C. The year is 2012, and the outfitters are gathered for their annual convention in Kelowna. Clark has just announced new regulatory changes to benefit the hunting guides, and was cheered by the audience.
“So awesome to have Premier Clark in attendance and noting her support for HUNTING and the role of hunters as conservationists and as the original eco-tourism promoters in B.C.!” a commenter gushed on the Guide Outfitters’ Association (GOABC) Facebook page.
Representing 245 outfitters, GOABC is one of the key proponents of ongoing trophy hunting of grizzly bears. Its members constitute a tiny minority of B.C.’s population, but carry significant weight with the provincial Liberal government.
Like Canada’s polar bears, B.C.’s grizzly bears have been listed as a “species of special concern” by the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC). Unlike their Arctic cousins, though, grizzly bears don’t qualify for federally legislated conservation measures — despite the fact that B.C. grizzly numbers have dropped from an estimated 35,000 grizzlies in 1915 to possibly as low as six thousand today — and have become a coveted prize for trophy hunters
Read Full Article at: http://www.vancouverobserver.com/news/grizzly-bear-population-risk-bc-liberal-government-aligns-trophy-hunters
Please sign and share Petition to Protect Grizzly Bears by Banning the Trophy Hunt in BC https://www.change.org/p/protect-grizzly-bears-by-banning-the-trophy-hunt-in-bc
