hunting


Earlier this week, the world learned about how Cecil the lion was allegedly killed as part of a safari adventure tour in Zimbabwe.

The African country is now asking the United States to extradite dentist Walter Palmer over the killing.

With so much discussion about the animal's death and poaching, what about poaching in Saskatchewan?

Darrell Crabbe is the Executive Director of the Saskatchewan Wildlife Federation.  He says for the most part, Saskatchewan sees few instance of poaching and that hunters follow a high code of ethics.  He says when international hunters come into the province, they must abide by strict regulations.

"Many animals they hunt have to hunt with a registered guide or outfitter, and so the onus is on that guide and outfitter to ensure that individual abides by all the laws and regulations that we have. And most of those rules and regulations and laws that we have in place were actually put into place because of Saskatchewan resident hunters," Crabbe said.

He says there are about 70 thousand licensed hunters in Saskatchewan and notes that doesn't include First Nations who don't require a license due to their treaty rights.

"Certainly the vast majority of those individuals would consider a poacher to be this about the lowest form of life there is. We're also very vigilant - we help the Ministry of Environment by helping them purchase different aid, such robo-deer and robo-moose and we try to curtail any poaching that is going on," Crabbe said.

The Saskatchewan Wildlife Federation publishes instances of poaching convictions in their magazine, Outdoor Canada and that information is also available on Saskatchewan's Environment Ministry website. According to the ministry, the province gets about 1,000 reports, per year, of poaching.