The Alberta government chose urban voters over agriculture when it
voted not to allow elk and deer hunt farms, said the president of the
Alberta Elk Association.
“Yesterday was a fairly sad day for agriculture as a whole. It’s
obvious that government has somehow decided the views of activists are
more important than the business climate in the province,” said Glenda
Elkow of Lloydminster.
“The political process let us down.”
Last week, the Alberta caucus voted against changes that would allow
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federal government proposed several months ago to increase the compensation rate from 80 to 90 per cent and double the maximum payment from $3 million to $6 million
the establishment of hunt farms or cervid harvest preserves in the
province.
Alberta premier Ralph Klein defended the decision, which came as a blow
to the already struggling elk industry.
“I think it’s abhorrent to take what are now deemed to be essentially
wild animals and have them penned up, and have them available to be
shot by hunters who don’t want to take the time and effort to go out
into the wild and experience the great outdoors and the challenge of
hunting,” Klein told reporters.
“I look on it as a decision that was based on common sense.”
Elk markets have been in a freefall for the past two years since
chronic wasting disease was discovered on some Saskatchewan elk farms.
The finding caused the elk antler market to crash, partly because
Korean buyers made no distinction between antler from Alberta and
Saskatchewan.
When chronic wasting disease was found in a single elk in Alberta this
spring, the meat market, already stagnant from consumer worries about
meat safety, also dried up.
Saskatchewan has closed its borders to Alberta trophy elk destined for
Saskatchewan hunt farms and most of the American states have also
closed their borders to Alberta elk.
These factors, combined with widespread drought, have dealt blows to
Alberta elk producers.
The decision to disallow hunt farms was devastating, said Norm Moore, a
member of the cervid harvest preserves committee.
“There’s a lot of desperate people wanting to sell animals,” said Moore.
Allowing hunt farms in Alberta would have opened up one sales outlet
and helped the economy in rural areas, said proponents of the industry.
In a News release
news issued after the decision, Alberta Agriculture
minister Shirley McClellan said: “Members of our caucus recognize the
pressures facing this unique industry, but don’t believe that allowing
penned hunting, or cervid harvest preserves, offers a viable long-term
solution to these pressures.
“Rather than opt for a short-term fix that doesn’t appear to be very
popular with Albertans, our government will provide whatever expertise
it can to help the industry establish solid markets, and also to
overcome some of the barriers it faces,” she said.
Jason Marsland, president of the Alberta White-tail and Mule Deer
Association, said he is extremely frustrated with the government’s
decision.
“Monumentally disappointed in the government might come close,” said
Marsland, of Cochrane.
He said the organizations have worked closely with government officials
to establish CHPs or to reduce the regulations around game farms.
Despite this, elk farmers learned about the government decision through
the media.
“We’ve worked on this for seven years and they don’t even have the
decency to give us a phone call or fax. We haven’t had a word from
government.”
Moore blamed the province for contributing to the unease that surrounds
the elk meat industry.
“If they were supporting Alberta producers, they would have made a
point of saying the meat was safe,” he said.
The Alberta government was quick to announce CWD was found in an
Alberta elk, but slow in announcing the disease has not been found in
any other elk, Moore said.
“It would be nice if we had some general support from the government to
correct that.”
Doug Milligan, director of Alberta Agriculture’s livestock industry
development sector, said despite problems in the industry, government
still believes there is a future for elk and deer producers.
“There is a sense there is a future for the industry. That future is in
the velvet and meat sales. This is something the government could help
with,” said Milligan.
“We have people with expertise in the area and a greater percentage of
their time will be assigned to work with the elk and deer industry.
“It’s not inconceivable we could do some project development work.”
