Peter Kalden was clinging to a hope last week that the Manitoba government may one day allow hunting of farmed elk in the province.
Kalden, an elk grower from St. Martin, Man., had his fingers crossed even as the new provincial government was sworn into power.
Within the new NDP government are MLAs who, while in opposition, disapproved of the idea of hunting farmed elk. One of the most vocal critics was Swan River MLA Rosann Wowchuk, who was named Manitoba’s agriculture minister.
Just hours before she was sworn in as the new agriculture minister, Wowchuk repeated her opposition to hunting farmed elk. She views the “canned hunting” as an unethical treatment of animals.
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“We don’t support it,” she said in an interview. “I think the party’s position is pretty firm on that.”
Wowchuk could not be reached later in the week to discuss whether the New Democrats might review that stance.
NDP MLA Stan Struthers, who has described hunting of farmed elk as a disgusting and vile practice, said last week his opinion was unchanged.
“That was my quote then and that’s my quote now,” said Struthers, who was NDP natural resources critic before the Sept. 21 election in Manitoba. The New Democrats renamed the natural resources department as the department of conservation.
Struthers said there’s a longstanding tradition of hunting in Manitoba. He doesn’t object to hunting animals for meat, but he believes the element of sportsmanship is lost when elk, confined by fence lines, are shot by hunters.
“This stupid practice of shooting penned animals runs absolutely counter to the tradition and history of our province.”
Meanwhile, Kalden remains envious of Saskatchewan elk growers, who are allowed to host hunting on their farms. He regards the hunts as more humane than herding the animals into a corral, loading them in trailers and shipping them to a slaughter plant.
“I guarantee you it’s a hell of a lot more humane to shoot them on the farm.”
