My dear friend, Ron, has a stalwart reputation as a well-known international conservationist with several technical and popular, even children’s, books to his credit – as well as various other publications – and a track record of being instrumental in bringing increased levels of protection to various wildlife species. He’s intelligent and analytical. But, he was naïve when he said to me, “What about joining with OFAH to oppose this?”
OFAH is the Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters, and “this” was the absurdly Draconian plan by Ontario’s newly elected Premier, Doug Ford, to set the clock back more than a century by amending the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Act to allow “game” animals to be shot and go to waste (anathematic to all traditional hunting values); to be killed while there are dependent young; to set “limits” of 50 per day and to put no restriction on “possession,” thereby pushing the population of double-crested cormorants, a native wildlife species, to the endangered level, with risk of extirpating it as a provincial breeding species.
Ron’s important conservation work is mostly on the world stage. He trusted OFAH’s claim that it is a conservation organization, and the general assertion by ethical sport hunters that they don’t waste the game they shoot, that hunting is not designed to be cruel and involves “fair chase,” which is why it is called a “sport.”
OFAH has thrown that all away, and promotes the horrific plan by Doug Ford, who shares with his apparent role model, U.S. President Donald Trump, a disdain for science, facts, consultation, and empathy, the last with reference to thousands of baby birds who will die horrifically, literally cooked alive in the absence of the parental care they need to shade them from blazing sunlight (not to mention night-time warmth, food, and protection). It takes both parents to attend cormorant nestlings, sharing duties. With hunters able to quickly shoot any and all adult birds in a nesting colony, widespread suffering is inevitable. That’s just one of many negative consequences to this horrendous shift away from fact-based wildlife management.
OFAH claims to be committed to healthy lakes and rivers. It’s odd, if they are so uninformed as to not realize that cormorants are indicators of such health, including robust populations of their prey. While OFAH says increasing numbers of people hunt, the fact is the opposite; it is mainly the sport of a small percentage of mostly older guys. Attrition mixed with growing knowledge of and more widespread interest in the environment has led to non-consumptive enjoyment of wildlife and the environment, such as birding and nature photography. These activities are increasing while hunting is in decline. What have traditionally been called “slob hunters” or “game hogs” – those hunters who simply enjoy killing – are now being encouraged to do as they please. OFAH once disdained this demographic, but now it appears to me that they embrace them. This will be hunting not for food or sport, but for the sake and enjoyment of killing.
Keep Wildlife in the Wild,
Barry
