Every year around this time, Valley Fish & Game Club's Wilderness Watch members, come across the disgusting and disgraceful evidence of an Elk slaughter, while doing patrols. A few questions for these , Unregulated Elk Hunters: How can live with yourself, knowing that you not only shot and killed an Elk Cow, you shot and killed an UNBORN FETUS  !!! Where are your hunting ethics? You obviously have none. Do the right thing and turn yourself in!!! These fine animals were shot and killed in an unregulated elk hunt. Night hunting is not only forbidden, it is extremely UNSAFE!! When someone goes out and tracks an animal at night, you do not know what unknown objects or hurdles lie beyond the hunted animal. Your bullet could hit a rock, and ricochet, shooting yourself or other  bystanders/elk killers. Your bullet could also hit a residence, such as a cabin or a window from that cabin. How would you feel if that bullet killed a child ? This is not farfetched. This scenario could very well happen. If you are near water, your bullet could travel for an incredibly long distance. For example: Have you ever skipped a rock on a lake or river to see how many times that rock could skip? A bullet has a lot more velocity than a rock, and could do many times over the amount of damage a rock could do, even if you are on one side of a river or lake and the bullet hits someone or something on the other shore. This past year (2008) we had a total of 10 Elk and 6 deer that we knew of that were shot and killed in closed, restricted or no shooting areas. (Areas described in our Hunting and Trapping Regulations Synopsis, as no hunting, no shooting or closed areas). There is no open season in the Cowichan Valley area for elk hunting. To give you an idea of how serious an impact it is to illegally shoot elk in a herd that has not grown into numbers that could one day allow an elk hunt in our area, consider the following: An elk cow can usually conceive for the first time in her third year, although an elk cow in good physical condition can breed at 1 ½ years old. Cow elk can usually give birth to a calf each year of her life. Elk cows can live up to 20 years old. So then, if you shoot 5 cows from the same herd, you have just decimated 100 elk. That is the bare minimum, if all her calves were bulls. But if they were 50, 60, 70 or 80% reproductive females, then do the math and figure out that the number of elk introduced to that specific herd could be in the hundreds!!! For this reason alone, the Ministry of Environment could most likely allow a bull elk from a herd to be hunted first. Members of the Valley Fish & Game Club and Wilderness Watch members are not against hunting. We are opposed to the unethical and unsafe methods that are presently being used in the Cowichan Valley area for unregulated hunting in a prohibited or closed area.  In closing, I would urge all of our readers and concerned citizens to call or write letters to our local media, Ministry of Environment or your Members of Parliament, both Federal and Provincial, to protest your thoughts and feelings about the senseless slaughter of innocent bull elk, cow elk or an unborn elk fetus.   Please voice your concerns. It is your given right to do so.

Yours in Conservation;

Denis Martel

Wilderness Watch

Valley Fish & Game Club