CAMROSE, Alta. – Rick Wood-Samman is hoping recent changes to game bird regulations will help beautify Alberta.
Under new regulations anyone can now raise the colorful ring-necked pheasants without a game bird licence.
“I’d like to see a few birds around. They’re kind of nice to see,” said Wood-Samman, who operates Dirt Willy Game Bird Farm and Hatchery in Ardrossan, east of Edmonton.
Until recently, anyone wanting to buy pheasants needed a provincial game bird licence and was subject to game farm requirements.
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Wood-Samman said he thinks deregulation will encourage farmers and acreage owners to raise a few pheasants to beautify their farms.
The new regulations also apply to ducks, geese and swans that look different from their migratory cousins, said Drew Mahaffey, of fish and wildlife in Edmonton.
But once ring-necked pheasants are released into the wild, they are treated as wild birds.
Doug Milligan, head of the government’s poultry branch, said the new regulations are not related to the province’s sale of the pheasant hatchery in Brooks.
“It’s more of a government trend to reduce government regulations where regulations aren’t necessary,” he said.
In 1995-96 there were 351 farms operating bird game operations in Alberta, down from 431 a year earlier and 442 in 1993-94.
