Group says donation tied to B.C. grizzly hunt
Money will be used to promote grizzly hunt, Dogwood Initiative says
An environmental group is decrying a Safari Club International donation of $60,000 to the Guide Outfitters Association of B.C. within two months of the provincial election and only days before the start of the province’s controversial spring bear hunt.
Victoria’s Dogwood Initiative fears the U.S.-based trophy-hunting organization is trying to sway the election with a substantial donation to an industry fighting to maintain the widely unpopular grizzly trophy hunt.
“There is a real gap between where most of the public in B.C. is at on the international trophyhunting industry and the government’s policies,” Dogwood spokesman Kai Nagata said in an interview Wednesday.
“We’re raising the question of what role those donations have to play in shaping that position. This is also an interesting insight into how the guide-outfitters have been able to maintain such a consistent record of activism and donations ... This is very distasteful to a lot of British Columbians.”
N agata said he draws a distinction between hunting a deer or a moose for food and “international tourists flying in, shooting a bear and leaving the carcass rotting on a river bank. That’s what people feel upset by. It’s just that much more galling to see how much money these American trophy hunters are willing to ... funnel to the guide-outfitters.”
Nagata provided Postmedia News with a computer screen grab of an SCI Facebook posting, since removed, that reads: “NDP have vowed to end the grizzly hunt in B.C. SCI chapters from Canada and the U.S.A. banded together donating $60,000. Together working with GOABC to prevent the NDP from getting elected and ending the hunt. SCI stands first for hunters.”
The posting included a photo of Safari Club International providing the guide-outfitters with a symbolic $60,000 “grizzly-bear” cheque dated this month.
Neither the guide-outfitters nor SCI immediately commented Wednesday on the $60,000 or how it might be used.
The Centre for Responsive Politics in the U.S. reports that SCI spent $710,000 on lobbying last year, including on legislation relating to species such as elephants, wolves and polar bears. Formed in 1971, the group says it’s interested in “protecting hunters’ rights and promoting wildlife conservation,” and currently represents about 50,000 members.
The Guide Outfitters Association of B.C. made four separate contributions to the B.C. Liberal Party last year totalling $15,150. The Okanagan region of the B.C. Wildlife Federation, representing resident hunters, also contributed $4,000 last year to the Liberals, which generated internal contro- versy. Premier Christy Clark’s riding is Westside-Kelowna.
BCWF spokeswoman Claudia Ferris said Wednesday: “It is our understanding that the Okanagan affiliate has requested and received a refund.”
Both the outfitters, who cater to foreign trophy hunters, and resident hunters have been in a pitted battle over the years for allocation of hunting rights in the province.
Clark has staunchly defended the right of hunters to kill grizzlies for sport. The annual spring bear hunt starts April 1.
NDP environment critic George Heyman confirmed his party will ban the trophy hunt if elected, while leaving open the possibility for hunts where the grizzly meat is consumed.
One way to regulate such hunts may be to require hunters to turn over those parts of the grizzly that might be used for trophies, including the head and pelt.
“We have foreign donors sending big money into B.C. to get a different result,” Heyman said of the SCI donation.
“I’ll leave it to your readers to speculate about the connections between money and political decisions in B.C. under this (Liberal) government.”