SWF for fine increases following bear paw, gall bladder trafficking investigation

The following transcript has been edited for length and clarity.

Brent Loucks: Let’s talk about the case of the woman from Maidstone who received a $12,000 fine and a five-year hunting suspension. It has to do with the trafficking of bear gall bladders and bear paws. I’ve heard of these cases over the years, and basically, these items are used in oriental medicines and that sort of thing?

Todd Smith: Yeah, that’s what I understand. Traditional medicines seem to value the paws and the gall bladders for various uses. The last one I remember is another case around 2020, which was up in Sandy Bay.

 So what’s the problem with this? Are these bears not being harvested by licensed hunters during the appropriate season? Is this poaching involved?

Smith: There are a few different impacts. It incentivizes poaching, so taking wildlife resources outside the season, which can have a negative impact on our wildlife populations. It also gives lawful hunters a very poor image and has a negative impact on hunting in our province.

It also devalues the wildlife. You’re essentially taking an animal that could have a tourist value as well. People enjoy seeing them on the landscape, as well as for a food resource. And you’re breaking it down to essentially two parts.

In the case of someone who has legally hunted and taken a black bear, and they decide they want to harvest the gallbladder and the paws. Is it illegal to actually market and sell those parts?

Smith: It’s illegal to market any part or product taken from a wild animal in the province.

In this particular case, there was also a family connection, another person in British Columbia. I’ve read different articles out of B.C., where some of these items, bear gall bladders and bear paws, people get a ridiculous amount of money for them?

Smith: Yeah, I was reading different stuff over the holiday break here, and was surprised to see some of the values that they can command. Some jurisdictions compare them to the values of illicit drugs, which is a pretty substantial incentive for people to go out and poach these animals.

Smith: I’m always going to say I would like to see the fines increased as more of a dissuasive method, especially if we’re looking at some of the values that are online, that you can go in and read about in various cases. $12,000 doesn’t seem to be overly high, but definitely a good dissuasive measure for this particular incident.

Briercrest game farm also facing charges

Earlier this morning, I was speaking to conservation officer, Makayla Lupien, about the case of an illegal outfitting game farm down by Briercrest. What’s the Wildlife Federation’s stance on these game farms? 

Smith: The Saskatchewan Wildlife Federation, as an organization, is opposed to game farming and the commercialization of wildlife resources in any shape or form. You called it a hunt farm earlier; we prefer the term shoot farm. It would be the equivalent of me having livestock, be that cattle, sheep, goats, whatever and someone paying to come in and shoot one.

Should the province get rid of game farms?

Smith: I hope it does. We’ve seen some fairly negative impacts on our wildlife populations, with disease and then invasive species as well. If I think of the feral pigs in the province, that was a game farming initiative. We’ll see what happens going forward.

Is chronic wasting also an issue?

Smith: It is, and then what can transfer from inside the fence to outside the fence.