Snapping turtle hunt banned in Ontario....finally!

[Catherine]

When I heard that the snapping turtle hunt was banned, I was stunned by the fact that they were ever hunted legally.
It takes 20 years for a turtle to reach maturity and they can have a life span of 100 years. How can anyone ever have been allowed to hunt them.


http://news.google.ca/news/url?sr=1&ct2=...t=2&at=dt0


Of course the Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters is against the ban. They don't believe that snapping turtles are endangered.
Yes they are right that the roads kill more turtles, but we can ban hunting, we can't ban roads. We may be able to do something to protect snapping turtles from becoming road kill. We can do something to protect them from hunting.  This ban will save snapping turtle lives and every life is precious and important to the survival of the species.

[Tobi]

Hunters will always make excuses and refuse to believe the evidence in order to support their 'traditions'. I can understand hunting for genuine needs but where there is no genuine need they shouldn't be killing creatures.
I am glad to hear there is a ban. It is good to protect the Turtles, and their eggs and their nesting sites hopefully.

[Catherine]

They have a hundred year life span. How can a so called "sport" like hunting justify  ending that life early just to make soup. I am not even sure they do make soup. Most of them will waste the life they have taken.

They are so big and slow moving it is hardly a challenge to catch them.

They are trying to protect them on the roads and they have people watching some nest sites. They even harvest and hatch eggs from females killed by cars. They leave the water so they can lay their eggs on land. It is the one time they are really vulnerable.
That means hunters were probably killing females who were risking their lives to lay eggs.  How low can someone go. They were killing animals that were "in labour" or at least soon to deliver. How do hunters live with themselves? Do they really believe the things they say?