Wildlife Issues
Spring Bear HuntThere is a growing concern about the ethics of the Manitoba spring bear hunt because of the accidental killings of mother and bears and the orphaning of their cubs.
Bears are the only big game species that can be hunted in the spring (as it is illegal to shoot moose or deer in the spring). We must offer the same protection for bears that we provide for all other big game species.
Cubs orphaned in the spring have no chance of surviving in the wild on their own as they are still nursing and have not learned how to forage on their own yet. When a mother is killed, her cubs begin a slow and certain death. At first, they wait quietly for her in the safety of a tree. Then, as the pain of hunger grows in their bellies, they begin to squall for her. Eventually they are killed by a predator or die slowly of starvation - taking from 11 to 30 days.
About 30 percent of the bears killed in the spring hunt are females. In addition, about one third of those females have dependent cubs. There is not evidence that hunters kill nursing mothers intentionally. However, it is nearly impossible for most to tell a male from a female in spring, and mistakes are inevitable. The bear's fur is very long in spring when they have just come out of hibernation so it is difficult to see nipples. Most bears are hunted at a bait site where the hunter is stationed in a stand up above the bait so they are looking down at the bear. This increases the difficulty of distinguishing nipples, as they cannot get a view of the bear's belly. Many mothers with cubs born that year do not bring them to the bait site as they can smell the presence of other bears and want to protect their cubs from predating male bears. Therefore, they leave them some distance away where the hunter would not be able to see them. Bears come to bait most frequently at dusk, which also decreases the visibility.
Manitoba laws prohibit the killing of mother bears with cubs but they are simply not enforced. There has never been a single charge laid for killing a mother bear, much less a conviction. The law clearly does not protect cubs from being orphaned and therefore the law is meaningless. It is clear that there is either no will to enforce this law or it is too difficult to obtain a conviction.
Non-resident hunters - primarily Americans, kill the majority of the bears. A regulation for non-resident hunters for tracking the demographics of bears killed during the spring hunt required them to submit the reproductive tract and a tooth from each bear killed. However, there was only about 60% compliance with that regulation and no consequences for hunter who did not comply. Since then the regulation was replaced with a non-specific regulation stating that a person shall without delay surrender a wild animal or part of a wild animal or provide information pertaining thereto when requested by an officer, biologist, resource tech., etc. That was then replaced by a regulation, which continues to only require hunters and lodge operators to provide information, which can include the sex of the animal. This regulation makes it difficult to obtain accurate statistics on orphaned cubs.
In the U.S., all but six states have banned spring bear hunting. Recently Ontario did the same. Now it's time for Manitoba and the rest of Canada to follow suit.
We have a responsibility to ensure that we protect bears from pain and suffering.
Write or email the Premier (premier@leg.gov.mb.ca) and the Minister of Conservation (mincon@leg.gov.mb.ca) at the Legislative Building, 450 Broadway Avenue, Winnipeg, Manitoba, R3C 0V8 asking them to ban the spring bear hunt in Manitoba.
Penned Hunting
The Winnipeg Humane Society opposes hunting wild animals inside fenced compounds.
Why?
- It is unethical.
- It's not a fair chase/no chance of escape.
- Hunting for trophies is wasteful.
Elk Ranching
The Winnipeg Humane Society opposes elk ranching and the capture of wild elk for this industry.
Why?
- Wild animals should be left in the wild.
- De-antlering for velvet is painful mutilation of living tissue.
- Confining wild elk increases risk of tuberculosis and other diseases to captive and wild herds.
