Hunting for Gratifying Fun

Under provincial law in British Columbia a grizzly carcass may be left where it has been killed. It must have been skinned before it is left there, in its natural habitat, but where misfortune befell it when it became a victim of a hunter's accurate aim. The province's Ministry of Environment reveals that the annual grizzly bear kill amounts to 300 bears. Their idea is to manage the hunt and ensure it is sustainable "designed to ensure that B.C continues to be home to one of the healthiest grizzly bear population in the world".

Clearly, not everyone agrees with that self-estimation by the B.C. Ministry of Environment. There is an aboriginal group called Coastal First Nations. They feel otherwise. It's not quite that they want to outlaw all such hunts. But they would like to emphasize that killing a grizzly bear should be for a reason; not to obtain a trophy, but to use the meat of the bear, not to leave it as environmental trash.

Postmedia News   Coastal First Nations are upset with the shooting in the spring bear hunt of a large male grizzly in the Kwatna estuary on the central coast, an area they have declared off-limits to trophy hunting. The carcass of the grizzly, shot by Port McNeill-born NHL player Clayton Stoner, was left to rot.

 
"I applied for and received a grizzly bear hunting licence through a British Columbia limited-entry lottery last winter and shot a grizzly bear with my licence while hunting with my father, uncle and a friend in May. I love to hunt and fish and will continue to do so with my family and friends in British Columbia", wrote NHL defenceman Clayton Stoner, defending his perfectly legal hunt, from critics roundly condemning him.

He has been identified as the hunter who shot a five-year-old grizzly male known to local First Nations people as 'Cheeky'. The Coastal First Nations thought up a public relations venture they named the Great Bear Initiative to reflect unfavourably on those who hunt in their traditional territories where they oppose trophy hunting. A short documentary film was produced to further their claims that such hunts are unethical and wasteful.

"It is atrocious to see such waste, and to see such a majestic creature just taken for its fur," Bob Chamberlin, vice-president of the Union of BC Indian Chiefs said. Image from bearsforever.ca.

The film shows a re-enactment drama of a hunt, with actors dressed in camouflage, rifles in hand, stalking bear. Interspersed between the dramatic scenes are stills of the burly NHLer posing with the remains of his butchered bear. A member of Coastal First Nations' Great Bear Initiative, GBI field technician Robert Johnson watched in horror as Mr. Stoner and his friends tracked and killed the grizzly.

"I just sat there and cried", he said. He shot photos when he caught up with the hunting party. And those photos are the very ones that have been used to highlight the film that was screened in Vancouver to bring public opinion to the idea that hunting those forest creatures for fun and recreation to achieve the ultimate family-room trophy represents an atrocious idea of enjoying nature and its bounty.

Mr. Stoner and his party skinned the bear as required by law, to leave it there, a mangled mess on the ground, all that would be left of an animal that was only a short time earlier free in its natural environment. The bear's head was cut off and so were its paws, to be stuffed and mounted in pride and to be shown to all who would enter Mr. Stoner's home, as a symbol of his hunting prowess.


Clayton Stoner, an NHL player for the Minnesota Wild, has confirmed he is the person holding up a grizzly bear head in this photo taken in May and released to media on September 3.