Post by Woody Williams on Nov 9, 2005 5:57:49 GMT -5
www.canada.com/victoria/timescolonist/news/comment/story.html?id=484
5a562-e2f1-4695-9bc5-b98fc97ed57c
Hunting season: A link to our past
Most urban Canadians associate guns with crime, not with putting meat on
our tables
Times Colonist
Sunday, November 06, 2005
Late fall is hunting season in B.C., and before the snow flies, a
quarter of a million hopefuls will try their luck in deer stands or duck
blinds across the province.
But although game populations are stable in most regions, fewer hunters
than ever are expected to buy licences this year. Over the past decade,
the popularity of the sport has slumped markedly.
Outfitters and shooting clubs blame the suffocating burden of government
red tape, and perhaps they have a case.
See if you can decipher this piece of bafflegab from the B.C.
government's synopsis of hunting regulations: "'Adult Bighorn Ram' means
any male bighorn mountain sheep, the head of which, when viewed squarely
from the side, has at least one horn tip extending beyond a straight
line drawn through the back of the eye opening and at right angles to a
line drawn between the centre of the nostril and the lowest hindmost
portion of the horn base."
You could have a PhD in linguistics and not know what that means, but
there's a fine of up to $50,000 and six months in jail for getting it
wrong.
However, damning bureaucracy for the declining popularity of hunting
misplaces the blame. A change of government in Ottawa will not reverse
negative attitudes toward the sport: The real cause lies deeper.
From earliest times until the middle of the last century, trade in fur
and game animals played a central role in our economy and culture. Long
before the Royal Canadian Mint was established, beaver pelts in Quebec
and deer skins on the prairies were taken as coin of the realm.
As late as the 1930s, settlers on the prairies ate venison or starved.
In simple terms, those who lived on the land lived off it.
Today, only in Saskatchewan, the Maritimes, and the Canadian north do a
majority of residents still live in predominantly rural areas. In
another generation, two at the most, the northern territories will be
our last non-urban hold-out.
With this migration has come a profound shift in attitudes. The 70 per
cent of Canadians who live in cities are more likely to associate guns
with crime than putting meat on the table.
Although firearm-related deaths have remained largely unchanged in 50
years, the fear of violence, if not violence itself, has become an urban
reality. We also live in a time when the impact of human society on the
planet grows more intrusive by the day.
There is a natural desire to conserve what remains of endangered species
like grizzly bear or mountain goats. Hunters of course would point to
their record in revitalizing threatened wildlife populations, such as
waterfowl on the prairies or antelopes on the high plains.
Organizations such as Ducks Unlimited contribute more money to habitat
restoration than environmental lobby groups do. And modern game
management practices create sustainable, and in some cases expanding,
populations of wildlife.
But this is less an argument based on facts than on perceptions. Though
some city dwellers distrust hunting and its motives for other reasons,
sheer distance is a factor.
Those folks in camo-gear and pickup trucks are a world apart. Society,
it seems, has moved on, and they haven't.
And perceptions, ultimately, can be more powerful than the most
deep-rooted traditions. Even among aboriginal peoples, for whom hunting
was as much a religious ceremony and art form as it was a means of
subsistence, the old lifestyle is disappearing.
When Inuit families in Iqaluit prefer chicken to caribou, it's only a
matter of time before urban culture extinguishes its predecessor. That
would be unfortunate.
Hunting and fishing are windows into our history that we shouldn't be in
too much of a hurry to close. In our high-velocity, high-stress culture,
preserving linkages with the past helps moderate the pace of change.
Values like hardiness and fending for oneself are still qualities we
admire. Taking a child on a goose hunt or a fishing trip will teach more
about self-reliance than any number of outings to the mall. And it will
provide a healthier dinner.
No tradition played a larger part in our country's heritage than hunting
and trapping. A generation from now, if those crafts are lost, we will
all be the poorer.
© Times Colonist (Victoria) 2005
5a562-e2f1-4695-9bc5-b98fc97ed57c
Hunting season: A link to our past
Most urban Canadians associate guns with crime, not with putting meat on
our tables
Times Colonist
Sunday, November 06, 2005
Late fall is hunting season in B.C., and before the snow flies, a
quarter of a million hopefuls will try their luck in deer stands or duck
blinds across the province.
But although game populations are stable in most regions, fewer hunters
than ever are expected to buy licences this year. Over the past decade,
the popularity of the sport has slumped markedly.
Outfitters and shooting clubs blame the suffocating burden of government
red tape, and perhaps they have a case.
See if you can decipher this piece of bafflegab from the B.C.
government's synopsis of hunting regulations: "'Adult Bighorn Ram' means
any male bighorn mountain sheep, the head of which, when viewed squarely
from the side, has at least one horn tip extending beyond a straight
line drawn through the back of the eye opening and at right angles to a
line drawn between the centre of the nostril and the lowest hindmost
portion of the horn base."
You could have a PhD in linguistics and not know what that means, but
there's a fine of up to $50,000 and six months in jail for getting it
wrong.
However, damning bureaucracy for the declining popularity of hunting
misplaces the blame. A change of government in Ottawa will not reverse
negative attitudes toward the sport: The real cause lies deeper.
From earliest times until the middle of the last century, trade in fur
and game animals played a central role in our economy and culture. Long
before the Royal Canadian Mint was established, beaver pelts in Quebec
and deer skins on the prairies were taken as coin of the realm.
As late as the 1930s, settlers on the prairies ate venison or starved.
In simple terms, those who lived on the land lived off it.
Today, only in Saskatchewan, the Maritimes, and the Canadian north do a
majority of residents still live in predominantly rural areas. In
another generation, two at the most, the northern territories will be
our last non-urban hold-out.
With this migration has come a profound shift in attitudes. The 70 per
cent of Canadians who live in cities are more likely to associate guns
with crime than putting meat on the table.
Although firearm-related deaths have remained largely unchanged in 50
years, the fear of violence, if not violence itself, has become an urban
reality. We also live in a time when the impact of human society on the
planet grows more intrusive by the day.
There is a natural desire to conserve what remains of endangered species
like grizzly bear or mountain goats. Hunters of course would point to
their record in revitalizing threatened wildlife populations, such as
waterfowl on the prairies or antelopes on the high plains.
Organizations such as Ducks Unlimited contribute more money to habitat
restoration than environmental lobby groups do. And modern game
management practices create sustainable, and in some cases expanding,
populations of wildlife.
But this is less an argument based on facts than on perceptions. Though
some city dwellers distrust hunting and its motives for other reasons,
sheer distance is a factor.
Those folks in camo-gear and pickup trucks are a world apart. Society,
it seems, has moved on, and they haven't.
And perceptions, ultimately, can be more powerful than the most
deep-rooted traditions. Even among aboriginal peoples, for whom hunting
was as much a religious ceremony and art form as it was a means of
subsistence, the old lifestyle is disappearing.
When Inuit families in Iqaluit prefer chicken to caribou, it's only a
matter of time before urban culture extinguishes its predecessor. That
would be unfortunate.
Hunting and fishing are windows into our history that we shouldn't be in
too much of a hurry to close. In our high-velocity, high-stress culture,
preserving linkages with the past helps moderate the pace of change.
Values like hardiness and fending for oneself are still qualities we
admire. Taking a child on a goose hunt or a fishing trip will teach more
about self-reliance than any number of outings to the mall. And it will
provide a healthier dinner.
No tradition played a larger part in our country's heritage than hunting
and trapping. A generation from now, if those crafts are lost, we will
all be the poorer.
© Times Colonist (Victoria) 2005
