Your Vancouver Province

Why not go hunting with a camera rather than a gun?
The Province
Published: Friday, July 13, 2007

A s Victoria must have known before putting it out to the public, a proposal to make it easier for British Columbians to go hunting and encourage more women and children to become hunters is proving to be a divisive one.

Undoubtedly, the proposed changes to the B.C. Wildlife Act will come as welcome news to rural storeowners and guide-outfitters hard hit by a dramatic downturn in hunting in recent years.

And it may well be a cause of some comfort to farmers whose crops have been damaged by deer and stock slaughtered by wolves and other wild predators.
But it flies in the face of a sweeping change in thinking toward our province's wildlife that has taken place in the same period -- especially among folks who live in B.C.'s larger cities.

Many of them have not been brought up in homes where going hunting in the fall to bag some winter meat is part of a family tradition, going back generations.

They prefer instead to go out into the great outdoors and hunt with a camera, rather than with a gun. And they are appalled at the casual and apparently callous attitude toward the killing of wildlife too often displayed by hunters armed with high-powered rifles.

They also note the irony that, at a time when 2010 Olympic organizers are inviting the world to come to super-natural B.C. to enjoy the "greenest" possible games, the government seems to be encouraging its own people to decimate its wildlife heritage.

B.C. environment ministry official Chris Hamilton, though, points to the benefits that hunting still offers, from organic meat to healthy activity. And certainly, it is important for our young people to know where meat really comes from. Also, there clearly is widespread hypocrisy among city folk who oppose the hunting of wildlife yet continue to eat domestic cattle whose slaughter they never care to see.

However, we believe there is a good reason why there has been such a sharp reduction in the number of B.C. hunting licences over the years.

And that is this: Many of us who live in a mechanized urban environment have for years now been appreciating the magic of seeing an elk or moose in its own environment.

We see no point in taking out a hunting licence, realizing there is far greater joy in seeing these amazing animals alive rather than dead.

Increasingly, visitors to B.C. from around the world, with more than enough money to spend on hunting with cameras, seem to agree.