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In an hour-long conversation, Mr. Ellis and I debated this subject. I told him I did not think the issue was whether the trophy hunting of grizzlies should be stopped because their numbers are dwindling, rather because it is simply wrong, period. How did his organization defend, on moral grounds, the practice of killing grizzlies for sport?
“We don’t,” Mr. Ellis told me. “We don’t try to morally defend someone’s personal decision. There are people who like it and some who don’t. We have a free country and we have choices. But I think people have this notion that if we stop the trophy hunting of grizzlies, there will be more grizzlies.”
And there might be. But again, I don’t think that is the issue. For most people, the issue revolves around the ethics of what is being done. We used to hang people in the town square; we don’t any more. We have ceased lots of barbaric activities as we have evolved into a civilized society. And when it comes to killing bears for sport, our revulsion was forged long before a video surfaced recently showing a grizzly being shot and tortured by a pair of sport hunters allegedly in B.C.
For what it’s worth, Mr. Ellis said he, too, was offended by what he saw on that video. He said the conduct of the hunters involved was reprehensible and he agreed the negative publicity the video generated likely hurt the reputation of guide outfitters everywhere.
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All that said, Mr. Ellis knows political pressure is growing to end the trophy hunt in B.C. He can feel it. He can sense it. And he admits that Premier Christy Clark is likely asking herself whether the 300 grizzlies killed each year for trophy hunting is worth the hit she is taking politically for it.
Mr. Ellis even went as far as to say that people buying guide outfitting operations today should not include grizzly kills in their future profit-and-loss estimates because they likely will not be able to count on that income in the near future. “And that will be a sad day,” he said.
That is quite a shocking admission. Even the head of the province’s guide outfitting association can see the writing on the wall. Even he is preparing his members for the moment when they will no longer be able to rely on the income of wealthy foreigners and others who want to come into the province to kill one of our most iconic creatures just for the fun of it.
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