From: Rosemary Waigh <rwaigh@zooid.guild.org>
Subject: Hunting in Ontario
Reply-To: rwaigh@zooid.UUCP (Rosemary Waigh)
Organization: The Zoo of Ids
Date: Fri, 20 Nov 1992 15:54:58 GMT



[the speech given by Janice Wilson, Hamilton Coordinator of Citizens
Against Hunting, at their annual rally on October 31, in front of
Queen's Park]

"In 1980, the Ministry of Natural Resources was given the power to
aquire lands for hunting.  Last year, 2 900 000 of your tax dollars
purchased lands for duck hunting alone.  In addition, the Ministry
actively solicits the bequeathment of land by unsuspecting rural
landowners who do not know that the term 'conservation land' has lost
its original meaning, and now means 'hunting ground'.  Also, there are
presently 38 Wildlife Management Areas in southern Ontario, where
private landowners permit hunting in return for favours, that you, as
one of the 94% of the population who does not hunt, pay for.  Most
Conservation Authorities permit hunting, and even bait areas for hunters.
In 1990, they received 47 600 000 of your tax dollars.

"A survey of 500 000 people, done in 1986 by the Federation of Ontario
Naturalists, showed that 99% voted to abolish hunting in our provincial
parks.  Now, in 1992, 68 provincial parks permit hunting.  Yet, you can
pick up a brochure issued by the Ministry, called Ontario's Provincial
Parks, and you will find that the word 'hunting' is not used.  Instead,
hunting is referred to as 'outdoor recreation' or 'cultural heritage
recreation' and hunting areas in our parks are called 'recreation utilization
zones'.  As a matter of fact, when you visit the MNR's Information Center
at Queen's Park, you will see no evidence that hunting even exists.  There
are no signs saying that hunting licenses are sold there.  You will have to
overhear a hunter ask to buy a deer tag.

"This is part of the Ministry's hidden agenda.  It is a public relations
strategy to keep the facts about hunting hidden.  This plan was written in a
paper in 1975 called 'Report of the Task Force on Recreational Hunting'.
The purpose of this secrecy as is stated in the report is 'to promote less 
criticism of recreational hunting.'  The report says 'The anti-hunting
movement has built up over the past five years.  A consensus would indicate
the sentiment has reached a crescendo only during the last two years.  Letters
to the Ministry protesting hunting, or some of its aspects have been steadily
increasing.  Feautre articles that more frequently appear in the mass media
are of an expose nature and have the capacity to generate an intense 
emotional response.'

"Thse anti-hunting articles, to which the MNR refers, appear still in 
newspapers across Ontario, and are to be clipped and sent by personnel in the
MNR branch offices to Queen's Park and entered into a file called 'Hunting'.
The file is then periodically photocopied and sent to the policy-makers. 
There is a problem however.  In my local newspaper, about ten anti-hunting
articles have appeared this year, along with about ten letters to the editor.
Yet,when I saw the file in September, none of these articles were included.
As a matter of fact, the file contained less than ten articles for the entire
year, from all the newspapers across Ontario!

"Our MNR probably employs more hunters than any other organization in the
province.  I was told that I would be hard pressed to find a conservation
officer who was not a hunter, or a biologist too.  With an estimated 50% of
the Ontario Provincial Police as hunters, and an estimated 40% of the RCMP,
our wildlife, abandoned by the 98% of the population living in the towns and
cities, is not only defenseless, but in a way, sabotaged by the very agencies 
that we think are there to protect it.

"In order to try to make hunting more acceptable to the general public, the
Ministry, in the past seventeen years has promoted the propaganda that hunting
is necessary for population control.  They wrote, 'The role of harvest as
management tool needs to be projected.'  For the most part, the media has been
blindly compliant, or even worse.  It wasn't until two years later that the
protesters of the 1989 cull at Long Point, which included thirty university
professors, learned that the reporter who wrote, to their dismay, an 
extremely biased article, was himself an avid hunter and a member of the 
organization which lobbied for the cull, the Ontario Federation of Hunters and
Anglers.

"For over a decade, the Ministry has attempted to keep information about the
horrors of hunting from the public.  The wrote, 'Frequently news releases
offend and antagonize.  Our publications are not necessarily read by the
intended audience.'  Research that might reveal truths which might threaten
the future of hunting is avoided.  I have found only one study done in 1956,
cited by an author of a book on hunting tactics, which concluded that for
every deer killed, eighteen lay wounded in the woods.  However, the recent
publication by the MNR, A Wildlife Strategy for Ontario (1991) states 'Little
data and information is available on wounding rates.'  In all this time, the
Ministry has chosen not to do this study.  They might have to publish the
results.

"The Importance of Wildlife to Canadians is the title of a federal survey
released in 1987.  It claims that hunting has declined in Ontario from 7% in
1981 to 6% in 1987.  But the MNR's statistics imply that hunting has increased
some 300% in the same period of time, and that hunting accidents have
decreased!  These statistics compiled by consultation with the OFHA, are
unbelievable.  What is the Ministry of Natural Resources up to?  Why do they
promote hunting when the great majority of the people are against it?  What
connection do they have to the firearms industry?

"According to the Annual Report for 1990-1991, the MNR made $11 000 000
selling licenses to hunt defenseless animals, but spent close to 200 000 000
on programs and activities that provide hunting for 6% of Ontarians.

"References

Game and Fish Act  April 1991
Wildlife Management Areas
The Importance of Wildlife to Canadians 1987
Ontario's Provincial Parks
Looking Ahead, A Wildlife Strategy for Ontario
Statistics 1989-1990
Annual Report 1990-1991
Report of the Task Force on Recreational Hunting
Hunting in Provincial Parks
Seasons  summer 1989"
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