Short Hills hunt opponents label Indigenous hunters drunks
Social media commentators invited to join protests after calling hunters “barbarians” who need to be “harvested.”
Some people opposed to the annual Indigenous deer hunt in Short Hills Provincial Park took to social media over the last week to call the hunters “barbarians,” “subhuman” and “drunks.”
Comments on the Facebook page of the Niagara Action of Animals organization, which opposes the hunt, also included calls for the hunters to shoot each other, kill themselves, or be murdered.
“People like this should be hunted in the same way,” wrote Michelle Freeman, who ended her comment by calling the hunters “barbarians.”
In response, Cath Ens-Hurwood, co-founder of the group, asked Freeman if she would join a hunt protest on Nov. 14.
At least two other people opposed to the hunt — Robin Zavitz and Sheila Krekorian — also asked people who posted derogatory statements about the Indigenous hunters to join the protest.
When Paula Cormier called for the hunters to be “harvested” like the deer, Krekorian asked her to join the protest. And Zavitz, a long-time opponent of the hunt, asked Ann Marie Stevens to join the protest after Stevens called the hunters “drunks with entitlements.”
Most of the comments have since been deleted with Ens-Hurwood saying the group does not condone comments that are “homophobic, sexist, speciesist, ageist, ableist, racist, classist; these posts will be removed.”
However, the Standard has obtained screen captures of the comments. Ens-Hurwood, Krekorian, along with the users who posted the comments did not respond to interview requests Tuesday.
In a statement sent by Facebook messenger, Zavitz said her concern is the damage to the park she says is caused by the hunt. She did not answer questions about racist and violent commentary by people invited
to the anti-hunt protest.
The social media commentary drew criticism from supporters of the hunt, including Celeste Smith, Co-Founder of Haudenosaunee Right to Hunt. “I found comments on the NAFA facebook page that shocked and sickened me. It made me angry, but not only that it made me harden my resolve that these groups must be stopped,” wrote Smith in a statement shared on Facebook. “Not only did members of NAFA and SHWA use stereotypes to demean and humiliate Indigenous people (yes drunks again), but they actually proudly promoted our extermination.”
The commentary by opponents of the hunt also prompted the Brock University Chapter of the Ontario Public Interest Research Group to condemn the Niagara Action for Animals because “its core organizers perpetuate racism, colonization and violence toward Indigenous people and communities.”
The Niagara Action for Animals group, along with the Short Hills Wildlife Alliance — led by Zavitz and Krekorian — has opposed the hunt, which is now in its seventh year.
The groups claim the hunt is cruel, makes the park unsafe and damages its environment.
Aside from the annual Indigenous hunt, which happens each fall and early winter over four weekends under treaty rights and negotiations with the provincial government, Short Hills is free from hunting.