Pay-to-slay hunting auction triggers vehement debate
Safari Club International will auction off hunting packages for 56 animals in Canada at its annual Las Vegas convention this weekend, valued at more than $444,000.
Some of the wild animals up for auction include wolves, moose, caribou, black bears, elk, coyotes, lynx, mink, wolverines and red stags.
Among the most expensive Canadian auction items are a 10-day British Columbia Roosevelt elk excursion for one hunter, valued at $33,318, and an 11-day Yukon trophy moose or mountain caribou outing for one hunter and one non-hunter, valued at about the same amount.
“It’ s shocking and I think the majority of Canadians would agree ,” said Judy Malone, founder of Tourists Against Trophy Hunting.
“We just saw in British Columbia a ban implemented on the trophy hunting of grizzly bears, and both residents in B.C. and a poll across Canada show that there’s a huge majority of Canadians very much opposed to killing our wildlife for trophy, for bragging rights, for wall mounts, rugs ... for home decor, we kill our wildlife.
“We’ re losing our Canadian wildlife at an alarming rate. We’ re losing them because of habitat loss and climate change and regional over-hunting. But we still let these foreign hunters in here and resident hunters in here to kill them for gratuitous pleasure.
“Of all the pressures that are threatening our wildlife now, trophy hunting is something that can easily be taken off the table. There is no conservation benefit to it. They will claim there is. But it’s well documented there is not — very little of the money from hunting permits or even the trips goes into conservation of wildlife.”
Jason St. Michael, operations manager with the Canadian branch of Safari Club International, disagreed: “It’s a fact that hunting is a purist form of conservation. Animals need to be managed and we’re able to raise money to ensure the wildlife is there for future generations.”
St. Michael said they work with the “best available science,” including deploying biologists and co-ordinating on projects with the Ministry of Natural Resources in Ontario.
Millions of dollars every year go back into conservation programs from Safari Club International, he says. Last year, the group spent $450,000 in projects throughout Canada, including a woodland caribou study and a grizzly bear study. “That money is coming back and doing great things for Canadian wildlife.”
St. Michael says he hesitates to use the word trophy: “It’s become a derogatory statement, because people have the wrong idea of what trophy hunting is. In Canada, there’s very few animals that you could not utilize the entire animal. Predators such as wolf and coyotes, you don’t have to take the meat, everything else has to be utilized.
“Moose, deer — people have a misconception that hunters that pay money to go up there, they cut the horns and the head off and leave the rest of the animal there in the bushes. That is not the case. That is a fallacy that needs to be fought.
“What are these anti-use groups doing to give back? They’re 10 times better funded than we are and I don’ t see them doing any conservation projects on the ground.
“They closed the grizzly bear hunt in British Columbia and the hunt is sustainable. We know the numbers — approximately 15,000. What are the effects going to be now, because a mature bear can kill up to 15 cubs in his area. How does it affect the rest of ecology in the area? It can certainly have a negative effect.”