City To Review Trapping-Hunting Issue

Written by Peter McIntyre  107.5 KISSFM Monday, 13 August 2012 19:00 
  Vernon council will take another look at enforcing hunting and trapping violations in the city.  Councillor Catherine Lord led a motion to have staff look into the options, saying she's concerned about resident's safety. She says bow hunting of deer by some Bella Vista farmers is concerning. "I don't know if there's anything we can do about that, but the Bella Vista area is quite well occupied and I just don't want to see anything happen to our residents up there." Lord says people trapping nuisance pets is also a problem, and says there aren't enough conservation officers to enforce the rules. "There's 120 conservation officers covering the province. Their work load is heavy enough." Mayor Rob Sawatzky says citizens have raised concerns about the bow hunting of deer. "That frightens me. Having had bows in my youth, I know they can shoot three or four hundred yards. They can go a long ways, and if you can kill a deer, you can kill a person." Council debated the trapping issue back in March, but decided not to take action, instead leaving it up to provincial authorities. No one opposed the motion to get staff to prepare a report for the September 10th meeting, but councillor Bob Spiers may wonder if anything will come out of it. "This is rehashing old ground," he told council. Councillor Patrick Nicol isn't sure if the issue deserves another look. "It's an important debate, but there's other debates that don't get rehashed in public. "I think this one is going to get more than it's fair share of transparency."