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February 18, 2020

Public Input Coordinator
Species Conservation Policy Branch - Wildlife Section
300 Water Street
5th Floor, North tower
Peterborough, ON K9J 3C7

Via email and online comment

To Whom it May Concern:

Re: “Proposed changes to black bear hunting regulations” (ERO No. 019-1112)

Please accept these comments on behalf of Animal Justice Canada in response to the above-noted posting on the Environmental Registry of Ontario (“ERO”).

Animal Justice is deeply concerned about this proposal to permanently reinstate the spring black bear hunt. As set out below, the proposal will cause serious harm to black bears across the province, including females and young cubs in particular. The government has provided very little justification for the proposal. The ERO posting speculates that it may have positive economic consequences, but sets out no scientific or ethical justification for allowing hunters, including an increasing number of non-resident hunters, to bait hungry bears as they emerge from hibernation, shooting them over bait piles and potentially orphaning their cubs.

The proposed amendments to Ontario Regulation 665/98 (Hunting) and Ontario Regulation 670/98 (Open Seasons-Wildlife) under the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Act will not improve human safety. They are a huge moral step backward, given that the spring bear hunt was cancelled in 1999 to prevent orphaning cubs, saving the lives of thousands of bears. Neither of the two pilot projects implemented since then have demonstrated any basis to believe reinstating the hunt is in the public interest. Bringing back the spring bear hunt would be contrary to the mandate of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry (“Ministry”), which is to protect Ontario’s rich biodiversity, not to make it easier to kill vulnerable bears in an effort to appease hunters.

I. About Animal Justice

Animal Justice is Canada’s only not for profit organization focused on using the law to protect animals. Animal Justice has tens of thousands of supporters and donors from communities across Canada.

Animal Justice works to prevent cruelty to animals by going to court to enforce existing laws, encouraging all levels of government to strengthen legal protections for animals, and educating the public on animal practices. A key focus of Animal Justice’s work is addressing threats to wild animals, including habitat loss and hunting.

When the previous government proposed to introduce spring bear hunt pilot projects in 2014 and 2016, Animal Justice and hundreds of other non-governmental organizations and private citizens wrote to the government demanding that the proposals be withdrawn.

II. Certainty for tourist outfitters does not justify an unethical hunt

During the spring bear hunt, hunters bait hungry black bears as they emerge from a winter without food, shooting them at bait sites. Females who have recently given birth are particularly attracted to bait, given that they emerge from their dens in worse body condition than other bears, having lost up to 40% of their body weight.

A. The spring bear hunt does not reduce human-bear conflict

In the past, the main argument advanced in favour of the spring bear hunt was the need to reduce human-bear conflict. In 2003, the Ministry established the Nuisance Bear Review Committee to undertake an independent assessment of the spring hunt on “nuisance bear activity”. The Committee found no evidence that the spring bear hunt reduced human-bear conflict. This is consistent with other scientific studies that have demonstrated that the spring bear hunt does not improve human safety.

The main causes of human-bear interactions are easy access to garbage, barbecues, and other easily removable attractants, as well as scarcity in the availability of natural food, such as berries and nuts. Indeed, baiting bears can increase the number of “nuisance” bear incidents.

Despite the Ministry’s own findings that the spring bear hunt did not reduce human-bear conflict, in 2014 and 2016 it implemented spring bear hunt pilot programs to assess the impact of the hunt on human-bear conflict. Although the results of these two pilot projects would presumably be relevant to deciding whether or not to make the spring bear hunt permanent, the Ministry does not mention these studies in its ERO posting, nor did it release the results.

Presumably the government has now abandoned the unscientific argument that the spring bear hunt will improve human safety.

B. Females, including nursing mothers, are killed during the spring bear hunt

Ontario prohibits the killing of black bear cubs. To prevent cubs being orphaned when their nursing mothers are killed in the spring, Ontario also prohibits the killing of females accompanied by cubs. However, this prohibition is ineffective. Mother bears often leave their cubs in nearby trees or elsewhere as they forage, meaning that there is a good chance that cubs will not be in sight as their mother approaches a bait site, only to be shot by waiting hunters. Without the presence of cubs, it is difficult for hunters to distinguish between mothers and other bears.

Females are, and will continue to be, killed during the spring bear hunt. Approximately 70 percent of orphaned cubs die before they reach one year of age. These cubs either starve to death or are killed by other predators.

C. Risks to black bear populations

Black bears are known for their low reproduction rates, making the survival of adult females, who reach sexual maturity late in life and have few offspring, particularly important for the species. The species’s low reproductive rates also means that orphaning cubs is a particularly serious threat to the black bear population. As noted above, female black bears are and will continue to be killed during the spring bear hunt. The consequences of permanently reinstating the spring bear hunt could be significant for black bear populations.

In its 2003 report, the Nuisance Bear Review Committee recommended that any future spring bear hunt in Ontario be a male-only hunt in order to protect the critical adult female component of the black bear population. In its ERO posting, the Ministry has provided no scientific or ethical justification for the potentially significant adverse effects of its proposal on the black bear population, including in the form of orphaned cubs.

In its ERO posting, Ontario notes the need to reduce black bear hunting on the Saugeen-Bruce Peninsula due to serious conservation concerns, yet it is still proposing to allow hunting and trapping of these animals for one week each spring. We urge the government to act in accordance with its public trust duty, as well the precautionary principle of international and domestic environmental law, and ban the hunting of black bears on the Saugeen-Bruce Peninsula.

D. Eco-tourism opportunities

The Ministry’s ERO posting states that the economic impact of this proposal is expected to be neutral or positive, but it provides no evidence in support of this claim. The posting also fails to reference financial benefits associated with promoting eco-tourism and encouraging visitors to view and photograph, rather than shoot, these majestic animals.

III. Ban the spring bear hunt

The spring bear hunt was banned in Ontario in 1999 in order to prevent the orphaning of cubs when their mothers are shot accidentally or illegally. The hunt takes place at a time of vulnerability for bears emerging from months-long hibernation, during which they have lost a great deal of their body mass. New mothers emerge from hibernation hungry, having lost even more body mass than other bears, and with young cubs to feed.

There is no cultural or economic justification for allowing hunters to lure hungry black bears using bait and shoot these unsuspecting animals for sport. Re-instating the spring bear hunt will not lessen human-bear conflict. Rather than bringing back this unethical hunt, Animal Justice recommends that the Ministry invest in coexistence education programs, and work with northern communities to explore opportunities for ecotourism that shares the landscape with, and even benefits from, black bears in the wild rather than shooting them when they are at their most vulnerable.

The government’s strongest argument in favour of permanently reinstating the spring bear hunt is that it will provide certainty to hunters and tourist outfitters. Given the disastrous consequences of the hunt for bears and cubs across the province, hunters’ desire for certainty is not a scientifically or ethically sound justification.

The Government of Ontario should permanently cancel this cruel and unnecessary hunt and ban bear baiting across the province. The Ministry’s wildlife management policy should be driven by its duty to protect wildlife, not a desire to appease hunters.

Yours truly,

Kaitlyn Mitchell
Staff Lawyer, Animal Justice
647-746-8702/kmitchell@animaljustice.ca