Editor’s note: This letter is in response to the article “Guide outfitters question trophy hunt ban” that was originally published in Pique Newsmagazine on Aug. 24. You can read it on page B8 of The Chief. In it, Scott Ellis, executive director of the Guide Outfitters Association of British Columbia, was interviewed about the ban on trophy hunting grizzly bears in B.C. that comes into force on Nov. 30.
I am writing this letter to you, Scott Ellis, because you wanted to hear from a First Nations person. Well, I’m proud to be First Nations and care for my people and the animals, plus nature in general. The animals play a very important part in our lives and they deserve to be respected and treated like one of us.
It’s our ceremonies where their hide is used and we wear it. So you must think twice about what you said in the Pique Newsmagazine because no one is going to go out and kill a grizzly bear and eat the meat.
If a lot of our territory wasn’t protected, where these animals have their habitat to survive, you hunters will go out there and kill everything for meat and trophy, then there won’t be any animals left. Then what would you hunters do? A lot of deer get killed in our territory and the animals get left out in the woods and rot.
What would you do if I were you, and you were me? Think about it, Scott Ellis. Because I see this thing you do to wildlife is just a fun sport. No care in the world about the rest of the grizzly bear parts – just the trophy is important so I don’t call you a hunter at all. You are in it for the money – that’s all you care about. This game doesn’t show you have respect for animals.
Ryan Peters (Q’awam)
Darcy
