Canadian hunters now an endangered species:
Date: Jun 14, 2005 10:28 AM
PUBLICATION: The Province
DATE: 2005.06.14
EDITION: Final
SECTION: Adventure!
PAGE: A36
BYLINE: Katherine Dedyna
SOURCE: CanWest News Service
DATELINE: VICTORIA

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Canadian hunters now an endangered species: Urbanization and gun stigma speed decline

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VICTORIA — For the first time in Canadian cultural history, the gun-toting tradition
of generations of fathers and sons (and occasionally daughters) spending a day stalking
game and cementing family ties is taking a big hit.

In B.C. alone, the number of hunters declined by almost half during the last 25-plus
years. In 2003-04, there were 69,000 hunting licences issued to B.C. resident, compared
to 132,500 in 1976-77, says Gary Mauser, chairman of the firearms committee of the
B.C. Fish and Wildlife Federation.

Committed hunters say the decline is precipitated by much more than the controversial
federal gun registry, with its fees and compulsory wildlife courses. Hunting has
suffered collateral damage from escalating urbanism, the stigma of violence and
snobbery about blue-collar and rural pursuits.

There’s even an issue with access to hunting grounds.

For example, the wilds of Vancouver Island are getting harder to reach, according
to life-long hunter Steve MacDonald, past-president of the Victoria Fish & Game
Protective Association.

In the last five years, access has gone from, “Yeah sure, you can go hunting,
to hoping like hell you can find a gate open,” says MacDonald.

A hunter for most of his life, he now heads over to the mainland.

“Urbanization trends have continued so brutally that people are divorced from
their wilderness,” says Mauser, a professor of business at SFU. In the process,
he said, “the very visceral idea of hunting for food is being lost.”

Now when people want to experience wilderness, they do so on quickie weekend trips
either as a family or by rock climbing. The wilderness is a place for “just
another athletic adventure” rather than a way of living off the land.

These days, few hunters are under 40. Mauser’s four adult children are not among
them.

Murray Charlton, an ex-RCMP officer who teaches police across Canada how to use
Taser and pepper spray, attributes the decline in hunting to public disapproval
of firearms use.

“The general public views gun owners as bad people, so if you own a firearm,
you’re considered kind of a redneck terrorist.”

Non-hunters can’t understand why hunters want to spend all day in the woods just
to kill an animal for meat when they could go to the grocery store and buy meat
from animals already slaughtered.

Hunters are viewed as violent even though the hunters Charlton knows cannot bear
the idea of an animal wounded or in agony.

“It’s the sport of going in the outdoors, enjoying the hobby of hunting and
the sideline is the meat,” he says.

“Most of the time, most average hunters will come back empty-handed. They view
that as just great: ‘I get to go back into the bush tomorrow.’”

– Victoria Times Colonist