Trophy Hunters Imperil Polar Bears

I have no sympathy for trophy hunters. They are not hunting for food or for any subsistence whatsoever. It's all about the thrill of the hunt and, sorry to say it, the thrill of the testosterone surge. Perhaps there are female trophy hunters out there too, but I suspect they are in the minority.

Therefore, to me it's a slam dunk as to whether trophy hunters should continue to hunt polar bears. If a species' very survival is threatened, then it is impractical to hunt it for mere entertainment. Every member counts. And I don't believe the argument that Inuit villages will collapse without the revenue from these hunts.

The cost of a trophy hunt can start at $35,000.

PETA to Target Vancouver Olympics Over Seal Hunts

It will be PETA's first Olympics!

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals says Vancouver's Olympic organizers have the clout to convince the Canadian government to end the controversial seal hunt on the East Coast.

"All eyes are going to be on Canada as it's preparing to host the 2010 Winter Olympics and we think that all that extra attention comes with an increased responsibility to set a positive example for the rest of the world," said Lindsay Rajt, PETA's manager of campaigns.

The group will launch a new campaign on Wednesday featuring the 2010 Inukshuk logo clubbing a seal, with the five Olympic rings dripping blood.

Let's see how far they take it.

The Inuit Point of View on Polar Bears

Here's an article in the Nunatsiaq News that talks about polar bear conservation from the Inuit point of view. The Inuit harvest, or hunt, polar bears in Canada.

"In the past, Inuit always considered the WWF Canada as our friend," {Nunavut Tunngavik Inc.'s director of wildlife, Gabriel Nirlinguyak} said, recalling that the two had cooperated on bowhead whale management issues. "But not with polar bears."

He said that a lot of Inuit feel betrayed by the animal rights movement, and by some biologists when it comes to polar bears.

{World Wildlife Fund's polar bear point man Peter Ewins} has been calling loud and long for more restrictions on the harvesting of polar bears, particularly in Baffin Bay and Hudson Bay.

The polar bear is the WWF's poster animal in its campaign against global climate change, said Nirlungayuk, and "the Inuit are caught in the middle."

Indigenous Tribe Hunting Illegally in Alberta

Issues surrounding indigenous hunting are always tough.

{The Métis} have embarked on an out-of-season {antelope} hunt to assert what they claim is their inherent right to hunt for food anywhere in the province.

Some of them say they may never use the right, but they are determined to claim it just the same.

"It's not about hunting; it's about aboriginal rights," says Jones, who was born in Edmonton, but moved into the mountains to trap and guide when he reached his teens. "If we don't exercise our rights, we don't have any rights."

The Métis say a Supreme Court of Canada decision upholds this constitutional right, but the Alberta government continues to deny it.

Under Alberta's rules, which came into effect last summer when the province cancelled a negotiated interim harvesting agreement, Métis cannot hunt on this prairie between Calgary and the Alberta-Saskatchewan boundary. It has removed their legal right to hunt for food in all of central or southern Alberta.

Photo by Olorin1.

Renewal of Tribal Buffalo Hunt

The Shoshone-Bannock tribes are renewing the tradition of the buffalo hunt. This time it's very carefully regulated, and involves animals they raise.

A 22-year-old woman is the latest member of the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes to kill a buffalo, renewing a tradition of American Indians in the region who once relied on the giant animals for their livelihoods.

Tradition Dann was chosen earlier this year in a random drawing to kill one of the buffaloes her tribe raises in a pasture on the Fort Hall Indian Reservation in southwestern Idaho.

Dann's killing of the buffalo, tagged with a violet ear marker with the number "356," is part of broader American Indian interest in ceremonial bison hunting, animals that once numbered in the millions across much of North America before they were reduced to small isolated herds in the mid-19th century by rampant killing by white European settlers pressing west.