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Alberta Fish & Game Association Concerned about re-appearance of Hunt Farms 12/09/09
Edmonton... Alberta's largest conservation group, the Alberta Fish & Game Association (AFGA), is gravely concerned about news that the Alberta Provincial Government is once again discussing behind closed doors and without public consultation the
re-structuring of government departments in a last ditch effort to save the struggling game farm industry in Alberta. By removing any responsibility from Alberta Sustainable Resource Development via the Wildlife Act and moving it all to the Agriculture Department the door is open to the introduction of hunt farms. The way these operations work is that an interested customer pays a fee to the farmer and is then allowed to shoot an animal of their choice at a negotiated price.
Hunt farms, also known as "cervid harvest preserves" at the time, were most recently defeated in 2001 after a public uproar initiated by the AFGA in concert with other conservation groups convinced the government of the day not to proceed. Since then the farmed elk and deer industry has been on a steady decline.
Game farms have been linked to the introduction and spreading of Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) the ungulate equivalent of mad cow which is a contagious, fatal prion disease of deer and elk that continues to spread throughout North America.
The Hunt Farm program is viewed as a last gasp at making some money as
non-resident hunters have been known to pay over ten thousand dollars to shoot a tame elk in those jurisdictions where these operations are legal.
"This is an outrage," said Quentin Bochar, AFGA President, "and really hope it's not true that the Government is going behind everyone's back to try and bail out a few individuals who made bad business decisions in the first place when they got into the game farm business. Game farms are just a bad idea as other jurisdictions are finding out and are indeed closing them down."
He went on to encourage all AFGA members and the general public to get in contact with their local MLAs to get the truth behind this concern.
The Alberta Fish and Game Association is a not-for-profit volunteer organization proud to serve Albertans in the promotion of the wise use of our fish and wildlife resources and the conservation of their habitats. The AFGA has been active since 1908 in working towards these goals and has a province-wide membership of more than 19,000 individuals spread among 100+ Clubs.
Link to MLA contact info:
www.assembly.ab.ca/net/index.aspx?p=mla_home
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