Intentional feeding/baiting prohibition

The public is invited to comment on the proposed hunting regulation described below.

Status: Proposed

Region: 1

Management unit (MU): Region 1

Regulation type: General Wildlife Regulation

Species: Ungulates and turkeys

Closing date: 16:30, March 22, 2024

Decision statement: Pending

Current regulation

There is nothing in the current regulations regarding this for West Coast Region. There is a similar regulation, described the Hunting and Trapping Regulations Synopsis on page 42 in the “regulation changes for 2022-2024” section: “No feeding or baiting of ungulates within 200m of a dwelling, school yard, or playground.”

Proposed regulation

In Region 1: No feeding or baiting of ungulates or turkeys within 200m of a dwelling, school yard, or playground.

Rationale

We propose to prohibit the intentional feeding or baiting of ungulates and turkeys within 200m of a dwelling, school yard, or playground in the West Coast Region. This is consistent with the provincial approach of “removing the attractant” in order to mitigate human-wildlife conflict. Conflicts with ungulates, primarily deer, in urban and semi-rural areas are increasing in the West Coast Region. Conflicts with non-native, feral turkeys also occur in portions of Vancouver Island occupied by turkeys. Deer and turkeys are attracted to urban areas because of the abundance of unnatural food, particularly unprotected landscape vegetation and domestic gardens, and in some cases are intentionally fed by members of the public. Deer and turkeys are also attracted to urban areas because many predators avoid human-populated areas.

These urban deer and turkeys cause damage to gardens and create safety risks to people and pets. Deer are involved in motor vehicle collisions and may directly attack people, especially when protecting their fawns. Feeding wildlife unnatural types of food can have negative consequences to the animal itself ranging from causing mildly irritating behaviour to catastrophic health issues and can concentrate animals which increases the risk of disease transmission.

Several municipalities in B.C. have urban wildlife management programs aimed to reduce human-wildlife conflicts. The feeding prohibition proposed here would provide another tool to help reduce conflicts with urban ungulates and turkeys. A similar prohibition exists in the Cariboo Region where the Conservation Officers have successfully used the existence of the prohibition to increase their ability to educate people intentionally feeding ungulates. To minimize impacts to agriculture producers and rural property owners, the feeding prohibition is focussed near houses and urban areas.

Additional information