Many years ago, I was fortunate to have the opportunity to see the Great Bear Rainforest. For two weeks I visited salmon hatcheries, met with First Nations leaders, and lived on the research vessel Achiever with the Raincoast conservation foundation crew. We gathered information on bear viewing, trophy hunting, salmon runs and much more. The experience really helped me understand what is at risk if human developments continues to destroy the natural world. It helped me see so much that is worth fighting for.
Category Archives: Campaigns
Fighting the Cruel Fur Industry and lack of labelling laws
Over the past 5 years, SAB has been involved in the fight against the fur industry in a number of ways, including Art shows at BlackSuns, campaigns with The Fur Bearers, and printing hundreds of stickers. The posters we made in 2018 even went up in Ottawa around the Parliament buildings.
We are excited to see that Canada Goose jacket company is dropping fur! Now we just them to stop the brutal farming of geese, but that is another battle. Today, we can all enjoy a small success for Coyotes as we look back on this long campaign and wonder which strategies are most effective.
Save Our Bears – The Movie
The LEGO bear movie, “ Save Our Bears “ is complete. Our LEGO expert, David, spent hundreds of hours designing and building the LEGO scenes and characters, editing the footage and patiently adjusting and tweaking the visuals to match the message.
David’s dedication to this project was above and beyond the call of duty. This little clip may only be eight minutes, but it represents a lot of effort and planning and was one year in the making. And if it saves one bear we knows it will be worth it.
We are also continuing our work with bear rehab facilities, the Conservation Officers Service, the Ministry of Environment, the Ministry of Forests and their biologists, and others on this program. Most importantly we need to get this message out to municipalities and Parks Boards, to crack down on residential and commercial garbage attractants. The Save Our Bears Movie is part of that effort. It may not impact current governments, it could leave a lasting impression on kids who will one day be in government.
Sunshine Coast Bear Alliance forms at meeting with COS and Mayor of Gibsons
On the chilly Remembrance Day long weekend, dozens of concerned Sunshine Coast residents and members of Stop Animal Brutality met with Gibsons Mayor Bill Beamish and Inspector Murray Smith, Sargeant Dean Miller, and Officer Leyland Klassen of the COS. At this meeting they discussed how citizens, the COS, local government, developers, waste management, and other groups can work together to reduce human-wildlife conflict to save the lives of bears and other wildlife on the Sunshine Coast.
At this meeting the Sunshine Coast Bear Alliance was founded. The group’s mission is to end human-bear conflict on the Sunshine Coast so that residents, bears and other wildlife, can harmoniously co-exist in the coastal community. The group invites anyone who is interested in volunteering and bringing their expertise and knowledge. Several committees have formed to achieve these goals:
- To educate our residents about living respectfully and safely with our coastal bear population.
- To work together with various levels of government organizations including the COS and Wildsafe BC to make meaningful changes to laws and regulations.
- To work together with Conservation Officers to develop and man a “Sunshine Coast Bear Help Line” telephone service answering calls from residents about bear activity and identifying high conflict locations.
- To establish a School Outreach Program (K-12) to cultivate a respectful and educated framework so young people become stewards of bears and other wildlife in our community.
- To collaborate with local governments and waste disposal providers to develop an optimal waste management system that insures the least opportunity for bear-garbage attractants.
- To eliminate the termination of any bear on our Sunshine Coast due to issues with garbage attractants, human conflict and/or disrespectful and unsatisfactory waste management disposal practices.
The group plans to create a model for co-existence with bears and to share this model province-wide and link all of the bear groups together, as well as help found more groups. For more information on the alliance check out the Facebook group
Stop Animal Brutality is pleased to see citizens banding together and donating their time and resources to protect their wildlife neighbours. Both groups actively work together to share information, strategies, and resources.
BC Bear Day is Sept 22 in North Vancouver
Presented by the Raincoast Conservation Foundation, Capilano University, and North Shore Black Bear Society the BC Bear Day event provides a whole day to educate, inform and inspire you about British Columbia’s Bears.
FREE Family day session 11-4pm: Designed to inform and inspire children and families, there is everything from bear yoga, to face-painting, bear research class, an adventure in wildlife photography with local wildlife photographer Ian Harland, music, treats from Earnest Ice Cream, and fun activities from a host of community partners.
Speakers and panel discussion (6:30-8pm) (tickets available here)
In the evening the event will shift gears with the main theme being co-existence. We will be welcomed by Charlene Aleck from the Tsleil-Waututh Nation and then the Takaya dancers. The evening’s main speaker will be Doug Neasloss, Stewardship Director for the Kitasoo /Xai’xais Nation and lead guide for Spirit Bear Adventures. Following Doug, other experts will join a panel to discuss how we can advance effective co-existence with bears throughout BC.
Add your voice to the petition from the Fur Bearers
Following the arrests of 3 Coquitlam residents who spoke out against destruction of a mother black bear and her two cubs, our affiliates at the Fur Bearers have launched a petition to MLAs and the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change calling for systemic changes to how community conflict with black bears is managed as deaths continue to rise, and signs of eroded public trust in the Conservation Officer Service become more apparent. Please add your voice to the shared call for:
– the COS to employ preventative measures, give fines, and provide educational tools prior to lethal measures
– third-party oversight be put into place to review and advise the actions of armed law enforcement agents
– funding be made available to any municipality to increase by-law enforcement activities, specifically related to wildlife feeding and attractants
– both the RAPP (Report All Pouchers and Polluters) line and by-law enforcement departments begin accepting anonymous information regarding by-law or provincial infractions that put wildlife and people at risk
Lone hiker attacked by grizzly in remote wilderness north of Powell River
On July 29, Colin Dowler of Quadra Island escaped an encounter with a grizzly bear in Ramsay Arm, an area of remote wilderness 180km northeast of Powell River. He was by himself on a logging road when he was attacked by, then used a knife to stab the bear and fend off the attack. He escaped on his bike to a nearby workcamp where he received first aid before being airlifted to Vancouver General. All available Conservation Officers for the Sunshine Coast region were dispatched to hunt down and destroy the bear. While we are grateful he did not sustain life-threatening or fatal injuries, his choice to enter alone into the remote wilderness resulted in the subsequent pursuit and destruction of the bear in remote grizzly country, which is literal overkill. This hiker went against common sense and the recommendations from the BC Government website: he took the risk to enter alone into remote grizzly country. This was not a case of an aggressive habituated bear entering a residential neighbourhood; this was a human who willingly entered grizzly country on his own with the increased risk of conflict.
Again, this another case of overzealous unnecessary aggression towards wildlife by our supposed “Conservation” officers.
We demand independent oversight of the COS, and reprimand of the commanding officers for the actions!
Support Bill C-400 for mandatory Cat and Dog Fur labelling
Did you know it’s legal to import and sell CAT and DOG Fur in Canada?
Loose import laws allow pet fur products into Canada without any required labelling. MPs had a chance to stop this, but the Liberal majority voted down Bill C‐246 (the animal cruelty act) in the House of Commons, due to the broad scope of the bill and its protection of various animals. Animal cruelty may be controversial to many that profit from it, as was the case with Bill C-246, but most Canadians agree they don’t want to wear the fur of a cat or dog!
In April 2018, Brian Masse (NDP) introduced the Private Member’s Bill C-400, which seeks to change labelling laws and require imports to be labelled with the type of fur. Private bills rarely pass in a majority Government, so this bills needs our support!
We call on the Liberal party to vote in favour of Bill C-400 and make fur labelling mandatory for all imports.
Please sign our petition here , and also take a few seconds to lend your support to the petition with our friends at Fur Bearers who have been fighting this battle much longer. Please share this with family, friends, and coworkers!
Read Bill C-400 below or in full at https://openparliament.ca/bills/42-1/C-400/
The Grizzly hunt is over
Congratulations to everyone who campaigned on behalf of the grizzly bears of BC. Thanks to the actions of our BC government, grizzlies are now protected from hunting across the entire province!
But don’t get too comfortable. Grizzlies have been protected before in BC and Campbell’s Liberal government lifted protection and reopened the hunt. This issue needs to stay in the public eye if politicians are going to keep taking grizzly protection seriously.
Stop the War on Wolves
Wolves are culled for “wildlife management” purposes to cover the impacts of industrial and human activity. The BC government contracts helicoptor companies to kill them via aerial shooting, and also kills via poison, trapping, and neck snares. Additionally, the federal government has expanded on the provincial wolf kill program via poisoning with strychinine and cyanide, which are acknowledged worldwide as brutal methods of killing animals due to the intensity and duration of suffering, as well as indiscriminately killing dogs, bears, coyotes, birds, and pets. Wildlife specialists, veterinarians, and First Nations are ringing the alarm bell around the destruction caused by this program.
Scientific data shows that industrial interests that show no regard for the environment nor wildlife are to blame for the the decline of Mountain Caribou, not wolves.
Furthermore, Canada Goose clothing tortures animals to make their product. Wolves and coyotes are trapped with crushing leg holds and torturous neck snares.
With neck snares, it’s also common for the animal to die of “jelly brain“, when the snare slowly cuts off circulation from the head to heart but the blood keeps going into the head. The brain swells up until the wolf’s head explodes.
Together we can stop the war on wolves.