With BC's controversial grizzly trophy hunting season set to open Saturday, a new poll shows the vast majority of rural residents want it banned.
The Insights West survey was done in late January, targeting 5 traditionally pro-hunting ridings in the BC Interior. The survey also used a higher than usual sampling size of 400, and found 74% of respondents opposed to the hunt.
The poll was commissioned by the Commercial Bear Viewing Association. Association spokesman Julius Strauss, says the lowest number of people who want a ban were in the Kootenays at 65%, followed by 66% in Cariboo North, with the other ridings way above that at between 78 and 81%. It's the first in-depth poll carried out to gage attitudes towards the issue in the provincial Interior.
Strauss says if BC banned the hunt and focused on bear viewing, we'd be doing the right thing and helping the economy:
"20 years ago there almost was no such thing as bear viewing in British Columbia, at least not from a commercial, economic point of view. Bear viewing is now a large industry. We audited the top bear viewing operations in B.C. last year and they brought in $13.1 million annually."
Strauss says while there's no official figure on the trophy hunt's economic impact, the estimate is that it may bring in $1 or $2 million a year, but is heavily offset by the management costs of the hunt.