Dear Editor,
I was disappointed to see the proposed changes made by the Guide Outfitters Association of B.C., in which the numbers of tags given to B.C. hunters would be drastically reduced in favour of non-resident clients, those being given huge shares of our province’s wild game tags.
As a B.C. resident hunter, I supply about 80 per cent of the meat for my family from my hunting, and I resent that right being given over to trophy hunters coming in from the U.S. and other parts of the world.
Currently, 70,000 B.C. hunters are granted 13,000 moose tags each year, which equates to one in five hunters receiving the opportunity to hunt moose in our province.
Under the proposed changes, 25 to 40 per cent of those tags would be given to non-resident guide clients.
Most Canadian provinces and U.S. states limit foreign hunters to five to 10 per cent of the wild game allocation, so we would be setting an unreasonable precedent if the changes were instituted.
I suggest that we British Columbians be left the right to provide quality organic meat for our families, by giving 90 per cent of the tags to resident hunters and 10 per cent to non-resident trophy hunters (guide clients).
B.C.’s wildlife is “not for sale,†but is a heritage to be shared both now and in the future by the people who live here.
Brett Wade, Langley