The recent Observer letters of Mike Morris, MLA, Prince George-Mackenzie, and David O’Farrell of the Yukon, bemoaning the long-overdue legislated end to the overwhelmingly unpopular grizzly hunt, provide a nostalgic glimpse of the outdated Fred Flintstone-Barney Rubble era, where Fred and Barney, battle dire-wolves and cave-bears at Bedrock City, during the last Ice-Age, tens of thousands of years ago.
But guess what? Those yearned-for, savage days are mercifully gone, and what a blessed relief to know that at long last, with an end to the hunt, we may finally be getting ethically beyond such prehistoric Fred and Barney angst!
Mike Morris’ contention of bears having a devastating effect on ungulate and other wildlife populations is without the slightest scientific evidence whatsoever from actual bear population studies. David O’Farrell’s assertion of grizzly populations being at an “all-time” (what is all-time?) high and thus, in need of “management” is, at best, amusing.
We all know which population and its behaviour is truly in need of management – namely, us – the nature-impacting, wildlife-habitat preempting human population.
When it comes to our negative impact on nature, be it waterfront willows, mountain caribou or grizzlies – we’ve been, historically, off the charts!
And, isn’t it strange why most real management of our own human behaviour, like the grizzly hunt’s end, in the best interests of nature, is too often decried or silenced as some sort of forbidden, unmentionable ‘sacred cow’ issue – and never discussed?
Now, that is strange!
Tom Crowley