British Columbians Opinion On Hunting Of Black Bears
The majority of British Columbians believe that black bear hunting should be allowed to continue, when presented with common arguments used by hunters. Respondents to this study were given a skewed explanation of the regulations by which hunters are expected to abide.
Slightly more than half of British Columbians (56%) support black bear hunting, versus 40% who said they did not; 4% had no opinion. Support for bear hunting varied from 48% in the Vancouver area to 57% on Vancouver Island to 76% in the north central part of the province, where people live in close proximity to the bears.
Survey Question 1: The hunting of black bears is regulated by the provincial government in several ways, including the following:
- Hunting can only occur at certain times of the year
- The baiting of bears by luring them with food is not allowed
- Hunters can take no more than two bears per year
- All edible meat must be removed Bears two years or younger and mother bears with cubs cannot be taken
Under these regulations, do you believe the hunting of black bears should or should not be allowed to continue?
- Should (56%)
- Should not (40%)
- Don’t know (4%)
Survey Question 2: Last year in B.C., Conservation Officers at the Ministry of Environment received more than 11,000 complaints about black bears. The complaints vary in nature from bears in people’s yards and digging through garbage to bears coming in contact with people and domestic animals such as cattle. One of the methods used by the Wildlife Branch of the Ministry to manage black bear populations in BC is the use of regulated hunting. Given this, do you believe the regulated hunting of black bears should or should not be allowed to continue?
- Should (64%)
- Should not (33%)
- Don’t know (3%)