review of B.C. wildlife act provides opportunity to help captive exotic animals
Author:
Peter Fricker
Publication Date:
July 12, 2007
The provincial government launched a review of the B.C. Wildlife Act earlier this year and invited public comment (deadline, July 15). The review includes the publication of a discussion paper that contains a number of proposed changes to the Act.
VHS has focussed on the issue of captive exotic animals, which is included in the discussion paper, and has made a submission to the government stating VHS’s position. The submission calls for the government to introduce strong regulation of the keeping of captive exotic animals. This would include a permit system which would require exotic animal facilities to meet extremely high standards in terms of animal welfare and public safety. Such a system would eliminate the private keeping of such animals in sub-standard, inhumane and dangerous facilities (such as the Siberian Magic facility at Bridge Lake where a young woman was killed by a tiger in May 2007). *
Another issue arising from the review is a government proposal to increase the number of hunters in B.C. to 20,000 over the next ten years. This includes allowing new hunters and children as young as ten to hunt under the supervision of a licensed adult hunter, but with no requirement to take an exam.
Wildlife Act Review: http://www.env.gov.bc.ca/fw/wildlifeactreview/discussion/
* VHS is opposed in principle to the keeping of all exotic animals but recognizes that an effective permit system would be a major practical step forward in eliminating the most inhumane exotic animal facilities.
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