Author: Gosia Bryja

In British Columbia, a war on wildlife never ends; cruelty goes on, unabated. We cannot unshackle ourselves from the self-centered belief system that destines us to view nature as a resource subordinate to our needs.

Evil in man’s heart hasn’t been eradicated by the ‘civilizing process’. Wildlife killing contests offer a horrific, publicly sanctioned outlet for satiating this lingering savagery.

We need to purge our discourse of linguistic traps that distort the perception of animals. They are not agricultural or hunting products to be “culled” or “harvested” but sentient beings who feel joy and pain, and who bleed, suffer, and die like the rest of us.

We live in an era where abrupt changes in social and ecological systems are a rule rather than an exception. Accepting the undeniable fact that animals are sentient beings that deserve our protection will be crucial for the successful navigation of the Anthropocene.

People from all walks of life, including a substantial number of hunters, are increasingly determined to question conservation practices they view as morally problematic. Trophy hunting is one of the most repulsive examples of these practices.