Hunters becoming endangered species
The sport is taking hits from all sides: high cost of guns,
escalating urbanism and the stigma of violence
(Source: National Post, 2005.06.11 - All but Toronto, page A8 by Katherine Dedyna
  - CanWest News Service)

VICTORIA: If current trends persist, the he-man hunters of Vancouver Island and B.C. may themselves become an endangered species. Committed hunters say the decline is precipitated by much more than the hugely controversial federal gun registry, with its fees and compulsory wildlife courses. Hunting as a knowledge-based leisure pursuit has suffered collateral damage from escalating urbanism, the stigma of violence, snobbery about blue-collar and rural pursuits and the high cost of guns.

There is even a major issue with lack of access to hunting grounds.

The wilds of Vancouver Island are getting harder to reach, according to Steve MacDonald, 50, a past president of the Victoria Fish & Game Protective Association.

In the past five years, access has gone from "yeah sure, you can go hunting, to hoping like hell you can find a gate open,'' says Mr. MacDonald, a B.C. Ferries worker.

A hunter for most of his life, he now heads over to the Mainland. A lot of the land on the South Island that used to be owned by the E & N Railway is now in the hands of forestry companies he says are less willing to provide access to Crown lands via their roads.

"If you can't get into where the animals are, there's not a lot of hunting to be done,'' he says. "It seems like every time you turn around, the gate's locked a little earlier in the year and stays locked later.''

There are lots of deer around town, but needless to say, no hunting within municipal boundaries with few exceptions on the Island and Lower Mainland. Hunters have to go a long way to find habitat.

Meanwhile, the gun registry means that "a perceptible amount" of people who once used inherited guns now and then have given them up because "it's too much hassle,'' Mr. MacDonald says.

On top of the dropouts, the culture of hunting is changing radically, asserts Gary Mauser, chairman of the firearms committee of the B.C. Fish and Wildlife Federation.

"We've got hunters pushed into an embattled minority. We could certainly call it an endangered species.''

The number of B.C. hunters has declined by almost 50% in the last quarter-century. In 2003-04, there were 69,000 hunting licences issued to B.C. residents, compared with 132,500 in 1976-77 he says.

"Urbanization trends have continued so brutally that people are divorced from their wilderness,'' says Mr. Mauser, a professor of business at Simon Fraser University. In the process, the very visceral idea of hunting for food is being lost.

"Now when people do want to experience the wilderness, they do so on quickie weekend trips either as family camping or rock climbing.''

These days, few hunters are under 40. His four adult children are not among them.

Mr. Mauser grew up thinking hunting was "bizarre'' and could not comprehend why his father presented him with a rifle when he was 20. He told his dad to stick it. "When I turned 40 I began to think it was time to stop being a teenager and being angry at my father.'' As a show of solidarity, he picked up the rifle and became a fervent hunter.

Hunting also suffers from "urban-rural snobbism and white-collar/blue collar snobbism,'' he says, complicated by lack of practice that working-class people have in talking up their hands-on pursuits amid the up-market aspirations of the overall culture.

"Big game hunting is turning elitist in the U.S. and it will probably turn that way in Canada unless the resident hunter can figure a way to evangelize the new immigrants or women or young people,'' Mr. Mauser says. "There's big money in that, there's big adventure in that, and so the guide outfitters will be the more typical kind of hunter rather than standard blue-collar guy in the pickup.'' Hunters can't even relax in a pub after a long day with their buddies the way a team of other sportsmen can, says Murray Charlton, 60, president of the North Saanich Rod & Gun Club.

"If you've got a firearm in the car, you're so afraid of parking it at the pub and having it broken into that what you want to do is just go home and protect your investment.''

Mr. Charlton, a former RCMP officer who still teaches police across Canada how to use a 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. The minute you mention a firearm we're judged to be on the ugly side of the street.''

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 he 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. Most of the time, most average hunters will come back empty-handed."

Mr. Charlton says guns now cost upwards of $500 -- another impediment to financially strapped young people taking up the sport.