{"id":353554,"date":"2010-02-23T12:11:38","date_gmt":"2010-02-23T17:11:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.greenrightnow.com\/?p=9318"},"modified":"2010-02-23T12:11:38","modified_gmt":"2010-02-23T17:11:38","slug":"enviromentalists-say-bear-hunts-not-in-the-spirit-of-the-games","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/353554","title":{"rendered":"Enviromentalists say bear hunts not in the spirit of the Games"},"content":{"rendered":"

From Green Right Now Reports<\/strong><\/p>\n

More than 25 conservation groups have taken the occasion of the Olympics to call for the end of one controversial sport in British Columbia: the trophy hunting of bears.<\/p>\n

The groups oppose the trophy hunting of black and grizzly bear, which they say also jeopardizes the distinctive and revered “spirit bear,” a rare light-coated variation of the Kermode bear. The Kermode, along with grizzlies, will be the target of trophy hunts set to open in a few weeks in\u00a0 British Columbia’s Great Bear Rainforest. The trophy hunts are timed to when the bears emerge from hibernation.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The Spirit Bear (Photo: Ian McAllister\/pacificwild.org)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

“How can British Columbia be celebrating the spirit bear in the opening Olympic ceremony and as an official mascot to the Olympics when trophy hunting is allowed in over 98 percent of the animal’s genetic range?” asks Ian McAllister of B.C.-based Pacific Wild<\/a>, an organizer of the campaign to stop the trophy hunts.<\/p>\n

Though laws restrict the hunting of the genetically distinct white-coated spirit bears, they are produced by the Kermode bear.<\/p>\n

“It just doesn’t make sense to protect only the white coloured bears when the black bear also carries the gene that produces white cubs,” said Kitasoo-Xai’xais bear viewing guide Doug Neasloss, in a news release about the effort to stop the hunts.<\/p>\n

Neasloss, and other naturalists, say that bear should be protected to assure their continued existence in the temperate Canadian rainforests, and that bear-watching tourism is an important part of the economy.<\/p>\n

Neasloss explains in a video on the Pacific Wild website<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Hunting for the Kermode bear is allowed across the vast majority, about 98 percent, of its territory. It is only protected on a small area of BC rainforest shown on this map<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Many groups in the U.S. as well as Canada support an end to trophy hunting of black bear and grizzlies in the Great Bear Rainforest.<\/p>\n

While the Olympic Games will soon end, the conservation groups have vowed to continue the pressure to stop bear trophy hunting.<\/p>\n

“The eyes of the world are on B.C. and the global campaign to end the trophy hunting of bears in Canada’s Great Bear Rainforest will continue to escalate until they are protected,” said Rebecca Aldworth of Humane Society International\/Canada<\/a>, in the news statement.<\/p>\n

Groups representing native people also support the end of trophy hunting.<\/p>\n

“This is not a sport, it is a senseless slaughter,” said Art Sterritt, Executive Director of Coastal First Nations. “The trophy hunt goes against every moral teaching that we carry and is disrespectful to our culture and values.”<\/p>\n

In a news release, the groups note that:<\/p>\n