1998 CAMPAIGN MEDIA
1998-01-21-3
The Vancouver
Sun
by Stephen Hume
BC environmentalist Anthony Marr is recovering after being beaten
by a burly man who said, “Let this be a lesson to you.”
[Photo] Caption: Beaten but
unbowed – Anthony Marr says he is undeterred in his campaign despite beating.
An
environmentalist known for his opposition to bear hunting and the black market
for animal parts was recovering Tuesday after being attacked in Vancouver’s
West End.
Anthony
Marr said he was waylaid about 7:30 p.m. Monday in the 1600 block of Haro
Street as he made his way to his car after a dinner with his parents at their
home.
Environmental
groups have been complaining about a sharp increase in threats of physical
violence directed at their members…
“I
was parked in the lane”, Marr said.
“There was this guy waiting for me by my car. He advanced a few steps and said, ‘Are you Anthony Marr?’ I said yes and he immediately attacked me.”
Marr…
said his assailant was “over six feet and around 200 pounds” and rained blows
upon his head and face, fracturing facial bones and damaging his eye socket.
“Then
he said, ‘Let this be a lesson to you,’ and walked off,” Marr said.
The
University of British Columbia Hospital confirmed that Marr was admitted and
treated in the emergency ward shortly after 7:30 p.m.. Vancouver city police confirmed receiving
his report of the attack about 8:40 p.m..
Marr
recently led a controversial and widely publicized Western Canada Wilderness
Committee campaign to have bear hunting banned in BC.
He
has also been active in successfully pressuring government for controls in the
black market on endangered species parts in the Asian community…
Marr’s
silver 1993 Mazda sports car and its license plate became well known during the
anti-hunting campaign, he says.
Marr
drove 12,000 kilometers and visited almost every significant community in BC
during the summer of 1996, holding
public and private meetings that laid the groundwork for a province-wide
initiative petition towards driving a referendum vote on banning bear hunting.
Campaigners
obtained 93,000 signatures in a 90-day blitz that mobilized 1,800 volunteers,
but fell well short of the 250,000 or 10 percent of the electorate - needed to
force government action under recall and initiative legislation.
The
petition campaign, however, gave Marr a high media profile.
He
said he was constantly harassed by pro-hunting (forces). Pickup trucks tailgated his car and he
received anonymous threats of violence by phone.
“My
reaction is that it merely strengthens my resolve to continue with this
campaign…”
Paul
George, a director of the Western Canada Wilderness Committee, described the
attack on Marr as “deplorable” and said it was time for police and government
to take seriously the “threats of violence and all the rhetoric that our people
are subjected to.”
“I
think this [violent rhetoric] unleashes hate against environmentalists just as
much as it does against Jews or people of a different sexual persuasion or
anything like that,” George said.
1998-01-21-3
Ming Pao Daily News (Chinese), global
[Marr Seeu-Sung assaulted]
…
Around 7:30 yesterday evening, when Marr was returning to his car after a
dinner with his parents, a man approached him and asked if he was Anthony
Marr. When Marr said ‘Yes’, the man
launched his fist attack…
“It
was so fast and sudden I didn’t even have time to turn the other cheek,” Marr
added with a wry grin…
1998-01-22-4
The Westender, Vancouver
[Protector of bears mauled by attacker]
…
Anthony Marr received a flurry of blows to the face and head, resulting in a
fractured cheekbone and damaged eye socket…
1998-01-26 Canadian Firearms DigestFrom: H. Roy Stephens Subject: Anthony Marr As it was reported here, he suffered broken facial bones including damage to the orbit of one of his eyes. That is hardly a “bloody nose”. Furthermore, in light of the fact he WAS the target of verbal threats regarding bodily harm from some of the more brain dead and irresponsible alleged members of the hunting fraternity, it becomes quite obviously newsworthy. Emotional issue + verbal threats + serious assault = the news. Simple. Not so simple I'm afraid. His injuries when reported in medical terminology sound impressive indeed. However, they weren't. Moreover he makes it his business to command attention by whatever means to promote his cause. Further more, regardless of who made the threats, (assuming they were in fact made - I'm more of a skeptic each day) there is not a shred of evidence to connect anyone or any group with his misfortune. To convict the hunting fraternity in absentia & by implication is only newsworthy if you don't have a critical bone in your body, and I stand by my assessment of the CBC Afternoon Show interviewer in that regard. Now that he has been beaten up - whether by a hunter or by somebody involved in the illicit animal parts trade - the yapping of the idiots will come back to haunt hunters. A very tiny minority threatened to physically harm him, and now he has indeed been seriously beaten. How does this make us look as hunters to the non-committed citizen out there - most of whom get their view of the world from the mainstream media? Whoever is responsible did hunters a major disservice. Just to put it in perspective he was not seriously beaten. As he stated he was punched in the face a couple times and was fine from the neck down. He walked away after the incident. I agree that the yapping will come back to haunt hunters. If you were in his shoes that is exactly what you would want! Again, we do not know if a hunter or poacher was involved. Don't fall into their trap. For all we know he has other enemies. He says he has none, but are you willing to take his word for it? This is a man who deliberately tells lies to further his agenda. >> That the CBC unwittingly has been aiding Mr. Marr is very much to its discredit. Where is the balanced coverage? I don't think covering a serious criminal assault after the man was publically threatened is exactly unbalanced coverage. He claims the assailant said it was for his stand on bear hunting - should CBC feel obligated to not report what a victim says his assailants said? I listened to the CBC interview and Marr clearly stated that the only thing his assailant said was, “Are you Anthony Marr?” Serious criminal assault? I guess it's all relative. I don't see it that way. It is necessary in my view to rigorously question everything people like Marr say and do. They are masters of manipulation, and worse, believe that it is morally acceptable to lie in order to gain their objective(s).
1998-01-29-4 [email protected]
From: Rick Lowe
Re.:
“I have watched this thread develop and I am a cynic. I do not think it is
beyond the realm of possibility that this was a staged beating to garner
sympathy from the public.”
Well,
perhaps the doubters are right and I am wrong.
Perhaps Marr did arrange to have himself beaten to the point where he
suffered facial fractures which had the potential to damage his eyesight,
threaten his life, or even kill him.
Maybe
there is something for us to learn here - we have much in common. Marr has been fighting a losing battle to
have legislation allowing bear hunting thrown out. We have been fighting a losing battle to have legislation which
bans and prohibits firearms thrown out.
I guess the only question that remains is if we can meet the dedication
that Marr has apparently demonstrated in arranging the beating he took.
So...
we need a few volunteers willing to undergo a beating severe enough to inflict
some skull fractures in hopes of getting a sound byte on the news some
night. Hands up please, volunteers...
line forms to the right.
Come,
come, surely some of us can meet the same level of dedication as that shown by
a contemptible, lying anti hunter like Marr.
If he can “take the bullet” to the extent he did to further his cause,
then it seems that hunters and shooters as dedicated as we are would be willing
to just as eagerly step forward for a similar beating. The chances are reasonably good that these
injuries will heal with no permanent effects - Marr apparently lucked out, and
our volunteers probably will as well...
For
myself, I reluctantly admit that I'll stick to letter writing, informing
others, legally monkey-wrenching the system, and bugging my MP. I don't have the courage that Marr and our
volunteers have, to willingly submit to those kind of injuries in hopes of
getting a one day sound byte in the news.
1998-01-31
Sing Tao Daily (Chinese), global
[The next Year of the Tiger may see no
more wild tigers]
…
Anthony Marr calls upon all Chinese, Japanese and Korean people around the
world to stop using tiger bone, bear gall and rhino horn medicines…
1998-01-31
Ming Pao Daily (Chinese), global
[Tigers may be extinct within one decade]
…
Anthony Marr speaks out from the Year of the Tiger booth at Aberdeen Centre…
1998-02-24-2
The News, Parksville - Qualicum Beach, BC
[WCWC’s Bear Man returns to QB]
Anthony
Marr will be in Qualicum Beach next Tuesday, presenting slides of his two
recent trips to India…
Marr
has stirred up a media storm…
Marr
will be “Champions of the Tiger” in Omni-Film’s Champions of the Wild series on
Discovery Channel this fall…
1998-02-24-2
Comox Valley Echo
[Saving the Tiger theme for slideshow]
…
Please come out to witness the beauty of these magnificent animals and
celebrate the ray of hope that Anthony brings us.
1998-02-
The Free Press, Nanaimo, BC
["Champion of the Tiger"
visits]
The
“Champion of the Tiger” will share his story with Nanaimo…
The
slideshow starts at 7:30 p.m. at the Maffeo-Sutton auditorium… on March 5…”
1998-02-27-5
The Comox Valley Record
[Tigers in danger]
WCWC
hopes all to celebrate the Chinese Year of the Tiger with Anthony Marr…
1998-03
Technocracy
Digest
by Bette Hiebert
[The Year of the Tiger - so, why are they
killing them?]
For
money, of course…
Anthony
Marr… is on his way to challenge the East Asian destroyers in their lairs, to
confront these people who are making millions killing these beautiful cats…
Mr.
Marr believes that if we commit to the Earth our heart and soul, our children
may see a new world more compassionate than ever before. We hope he is right, but as long as there is
the almighty dollar, there will be no compassion, and our children will see
nothing but barren earth…
1998-03-21-6
Times Colonist, Victoria,
BC by Judith Lavoie
[Seal hunt protested with blood]
…
Anthony Marr… said he does not usually advocate breaking the law. But he is
considering withholding his income taxes this year because tax money is being
used to subsidize the commercial seal hunt…
[Note:
This reflects my personal view only, not that of WCWC, whose policy is to
campaign strictly within the limits of the law – Anthony Marr]
1997-04-24-
The Georgia Straight magazine, Vancouver,
BC by Shawn Blore
[Bloody Superstition –
Anthony Marr wants to stop the medicinal
use of tiger products before it destroys a magnificent species]
...
Pessimist give the world's tigers 5 years. Realists, 10.
They're
the kind of numbers that make you want to quietly despair, to give up, to flip
the channel and think about something more pleasant. Melrose Place maybe,
or Roseanne. Marr, however, whether from a sense of conceit, ignorance,
or a staggering sense of confidence, saw nothing impossible in the task of
bringing the tiger back from the brink...
...
To highlight the extent of Vancouver's tiger trade, Marr kicked off a media
blitz in January 1996. Local journalists were invited on an endangered
species tour through Chinatown's apothecaries. The tour began in the
low-ceilinged warren that serves as WCWC's headquarters. Marr upended his
leather briefcase , spilling out 15-20 boxes of Chinese patent medicines: tiger
plasters, tiger pills, tiger-based medicaments for rheumatism, tired blood,
soft bones, and sexual impotence, all of them purchased in shops in Vancouver's
Chinatown. Pointing to the ingredients lists on the diverse packages,
Marr picked out the symbols, words, and phrases that in Latin, English and
Chinese spelled out “tiger bone”.
The
next part of the tour was a trip along Pender, Main and Keefer Streets, with
Marr indicating here and there the shops and apothecaries dealing in tiger
medicinals and inviting journalists to go in and check the shelves for
themselves. Six shops out of 10 stocked a variety of boxes, cartons and
bottles labelled with some variation of the word Os Tigris - tiger bone.
The
media loved it. Marr made it on to TV news both locally and nationally,
and stories appeared in city magazines and community papers. He used his
pulpit to heap scorn upon Canadian wildlife regulations. “Canada's
wildlife laws could use an aphrodisiac,” Marr said, “because right now, they're
totally impotent.” He was equally hard-hitting in his presentations to
Chinese community groups and at Eastside Vancouver high schools.
Traditional Chinese medicine's use of parts of animals like tigers and
rhinos, Marr said, and the cutting of many urban trees for that matter, were
based on nothing but pure superstition. That superstition was destroying
a magnificent species. The fact that the practice was tolerated by the
Chinese-Canadian community only blackened their reputation in mainstream
Canadian society.
Environmentalists
heaved a sigh of relief. Here was someone tackling a problem they had
long known about but dared not touch. “It's great that it's a Chinese
person doing the work he's doing.” said Nathalie Chalifour, World Wildlife Fund
Canada’s tiger expert, “because when it's a person like me doing it, well, I'm
white; I'm more likely to be accused to being racist, which is really
unfortunate, but it does happen.”
Vancouver's
Chinese media were as quick to jump on the story as their English
counterparts. Marr's campaign was covered by both the Ming Pao and the
Sing Tao newspapers, and he appeared on several Chinese language radio
programs. According to Ming Pao columnist and CJVB radio host
Gabriel Yiu, the Chinese community's reaction to Marr's campaign was mixed.
His straight talk on superstition did offend some, but there was also those who
took pride in the fact that a Chinese Canadian was working on environmental
concerns. “For a long period of time when people are talking about
monster homes, tree cutting, killing wild animals for some of their body
parts,” Yiu said, “people do have the impression that the Chinese community is
the cause of that. I think the work Anthony did set a very good example
that we do have people in the Chinese community who are concerned about these
issues.”...
According
to Vancouver city councillor Don Lee, Marr's effectiveness was limited... “I
don't know Anthony Marr that well. The Chinese Community doesn't know him
well at all,” Lee said. “We don't know where he comes from. We
don't know why he's doing all this.” As it turns out, those are two of
the most interesting questions that could be asked about Anthony Marr.
Born
in February 1944, in southern China, Anthony Shiu-Sang Marr fled to Hong Kong
along with the rest of his family shortly after the Communist revolution.
Family tradition has Marr’s father burning the deeds of the family's extensive
land-holdings for a moment's warmth during the first refugee winter...
(In
1965), Marr came to Canada to study science at the University of Manitoba... At
the same time, his relationship with a Hong Kong girl fell to bits when she
dropped him on orders from her parents. Marr has never forgiven Chinese
culture for the snub. “As a result of that incident, I have never dated a
Chinese girl again,” Marr said. It's a decision that isolated him
somewhat from the Chinese community, but, according to Marr, it also allowed
him to integrate more fully into Canadian society than other Chinese immigrants
of his generation.
In
1966, Marr switched over to the physics department of the University of British
Columbia. His summers he spent in the bush in northern Manitoba and
British Columbia, working as a geologist's assistant. It was work that
can only be idealized by someone who has never done it. Marr said, “The
student is the geologist’s personal servant - more like slave, considering the
pay, which was only $280 per month. I made and carried his lunch, and
every few feet, the geologist would pick up a rock sample about twice the
size of my fist and drop it into my knapsack. I had to carry that
ever-heavier thing all day, wading into swamps that would sometimes come up to
my chest or higher. Your shirt would be black with flies and
mosquitoes. There could be a bear behind every tree. It was brutal,
but also absolutely beautiful. And this was how I bonded with nature.
After
he graduated with a B.Sc. in 1970, Marr took a job as a live-in house-father
for emotionally disturbed kids, then a career in real estate. He said he
had a heavy student loan to pay off. One senses he also had a need to
gain acceptance among the Vancouver business community. “I made rookie of
the year, then Gold Club, Diamond Club, all that,” Marr said. “I bought a
couple of horses - hunters-jumpers - and got involved with the high social
elite you see down in Southlands.” Snap shots from the time show a
short-haired Marr in boots and riding breeches, sitting atop a tall bay
gelding.
The
real estate phased continued for several years. Marr bought a small
acreage in the suburbs. He dated but never married. “The work first
became routine, then boring, then irksome, then unbearable. I was still
good at it, but the initial challenge was gone,” he said.
About
this time, things took a strange turn. Whether from boredom, a need to be
alone, or perhaps simple a desire to see the sights, he left his job and set
off on a solo journey in East Africa, primarily in the Kilimanjaro, Serengeti,
Ngorongoro Crater and Olduvai Gorge region of Tanzania. At some point
during that three month sojourn, something happened that changed the whole
focus of Marr's life. “If you want to be dramatic, you can say it came to
me all at once in a blinding flash while I was camping on the savannah, but
really, it developed very gradually.” What Marr was catching sight
of was a completely new philosophical system, one that in Marr's view is
comprehensive enough to explain the organization and development of life,
society and the Cosmos itself.
The
full tenet of this system came to him in dribs and drabs over a period of many
months during and after his return. Marr collected each of these thoughts
on a file card - more than 1,000 of them by the end - and worked at ordering,
arranging, and reordering them, trying to assemble his thoughts into a coherent
whole. The process took years. Marr’s live-in girlfriend walk
out. “I really shouldn't be living with someone at that point,” Marr
said. “I had to have my own room. I had to have a ‘DO NOT DISTURB’
sign on the door, and if anybody as much as knocked, my tenuous mental
construct would fall down like a house of cards.” The net result of his
shuffling and reshuffling, typing and retyping, was a manuscript more than 800
pages in length, describing a new and comprehensive philosophical and phenomenological
system. Marr christened it OMNI-SCIENCE....
At
first glance, OMNI-SCIENCE bears some resemblance to the ideas of the Jesuit
philosopher-scientist Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. Both suggest that the
development of humanity must logically proceed in a converging upward spiral,
which Marr calls Integrative Transcendence, towards ever-superior levels of
organization and unity. Marr, however, is quick to point out how his
system differs from those of other western philosophers. “I've read Kant and
Schopenhauer and Russell and Nietzsche,” Marr said, “but they're not cosmic
enough. They're too anthropocentric, too narrowly focused.” Marr's system
purportedly incorporates everything - inorganic and organic - throughout the
Universe, from the Big Bang to whatever end, all participating in the
multi-leveled Integrative Transcendence spiral towards universal consciousness.
Hogwash?
Possibly. Even Marr himself had doubts (about the acceptability of his
system in the eyes of high academia). In the mid-80s, Marr tossed both
manuscript and portable type-writer into his little green Toyota Celica and set
off down the West Coast to test his ideas with the best academic minds he could
find. One of the stops was the University of California at Berkeley, and
another was Stanford. “This was when my sales training paid off.
When I got to campus, the first thing I’d do was find a course catalog and look
up the professors who were teaching the courses I liked. Back in my hotel
room, I'd crank out a dozen or so letters. ‘Dear Dr. so and so, I have a
matter of philosophical interest that I’d like to discuss with you. The
time required would be about two hours...’ Then I'd go back to campus and
put the letters into their cubbyholes. The next day, I'd call and ask for
an appointment. We'd talk for two hours, and at the end, I'd ask for a
letter of critique.”
The
good professors’ reactions to this approach can be discerned from the letter
written by William Kimbel, president of the Institute of Human Origins at
Berkeley: “Owing to the large number of half-baked theories on cosmology
currently in circulation, I admit that I faced the prospect of my meeting with
Mr. Marr with some trepidation. From the outset, however, it was clear
that Mr. Marr is no amateur populariser. On the contrary, he is a
dedicated scholar whose theories, I believe, make a profound contribution to
the fundamental definition of humankind in relation to the broader universe.”
Marr
received similarly effusive letters from other professors at Berkeley,
Stanford, and the Universities of Oregon, Washington and British Columbia..
Heady
stuff. Yet, more than a decade later, the manuscript remains
unpublished. Professor Braxton Alfred of Anthropology, UBC, said he even
offered to help find a publisher, but Marr said his manuscript was not yet
ready for publication. He did leave a copy of the then manuscript behind
after his presentation, but due to professional pressures, Alfred didn't get
around to looking at it until recently. Reading it now, Alfred said, only
increases his respect for Marr. It also sheds light on what it was that
set him on his current crusade.
“The
presentation he gave me was hard science, very thoroughly presented. He
was right on the numbers with everything in the presentation. I presumed
likewise in these documents,” Alfred said, referring to the OMNI-SCIENCE
manuscript, “but these are quite a different thing. That man had a
revelation in Africa. There's no other way to characterize it. It's
clear that he was experiencing some sort of emotional trauma, and something
touched him, and what these documents record are the revealed truth of that
contact.”
…
Having read the manuscript, Alfred said he is no longer puzzled by Marr’s
decision to turn away from the task of perfecting his book to work on behalf of
endangered species. “It was in Africa that this naturism force first came
to the fore...” The manuscript also
gives some indication of the source of Marr's willingness to take on seemingly
hopeless causes. “He clearly came to a crisis point in his life,” Alfred
said, “and the heavens opened up and truth was revealed, and he's been going
strong eversince.”
Wherever
his confidence came stems from, when the “19th-century scholar” decided to
prove himself as an environmental saviour, he displayed a thoroughly 19th
century sense of ambition...
…
Although some conservationists predict the tiger will be extinct in five years,
Anthony Marr is convinced he can reverse the prophecy…
…
China imported the equivalent of 400 grown tigers and exported 27 million tiger
derivative products from 1990 to 1993…
…
About 39,000 individual tiger containing products were seized in BC in 1996,
including everything from medicinals to tiger claws…
A
Vancouver branch of Asian Conservation Awareness Program is planning to begin
an ad blitz this June, timed to coincide with the dragon-boat festival.
Ironically, Marr will likely not be invited to participate. According to
ACAP's Vancouver organizer Ling Zheng, Marr's confrontational style doesn't fit
in with ACAP's approach, which hinges on establishing partnerships with the
Chinese community groups and obtaining sponsorship from prominent
corporations. “We're trying to reach out to the Chinese community, so we
try not to use his name,” Zheng said. “If we mention Anthony Marr, I will
probably not get any help from organizations like SUCCESS or the Chinese
Cultural Centre. He can be quite harsh towards certain Chinese people,
and I've even heard that in the Chinese community he’s considered like a traitor.”...
1998-04-29
Ottawa Citizen, Ottawa, ON by
Michael Den Tandt
[RCMP cracks down on trade in endangered
animal parts]
Toronto
- The RCMP and the Ontario Ministry of NNatural Resources have taken a bite out
of this city’s lucrative trade in endangered animal parts, a move
conservationists say is long overdue…
Asked
whether (Viagra) may take some pressure off endangered species, Mr. Marr said…
“If it doesn’t harm the environment, or any species, and it helps someone’s
quality of life, then it’s a private manner.”
He
added, “I’ve seen one or two people on TV - and they really vouch for it.
Including their wives.”
1998-05-13-3 The Vancouver
Courier by Gudrun Will
[Beating no bar to bear pal - Marr back
on the road in defence of grizzlies]
Animal
conservationist Anthony Marr is anything but intimidated after getting a fist
in the face in a West End alley, delivered with the not-so-cryptic message:
“Let this be a lesson to you.”
The
January attack by an unknown assailant broke his nose, cracked his cheekbone
and damaged his right eye socket.
Rather than shutting him up, it inspired him to undertake another road
trip to stop the grizzly bear hunt in BC…
1998-05-22-5 Capital News, Kelowna,
BC by John McDonald
[Grizzly hunting under fire]
Hunters
and anti-hunting activists came face-to-face last night at a forum to discuss a
campaign to ban the harvest of grizzly bears…
Veteran
anti-bear hunt campaigner Anthony Marr was in Kelowna hosting a multi-media presentation…
1998-05-25-1 The Daily Courier, Kelowna,
BC by Chuck Poulsen
[Protecting the Grizzlies - Project aimed
at ending hunt]
Environmentalist
Anthony Marr… was in the Okanagan recently as part of a six-week campaign that
will take him throughout BC handing out cards that he hopes hunting foes will
mail to Premier Glen Clark…
“…Estimates
of the number of Grizzlies in BC vary.
Marr says independent biologists put the figure at 4,000-7,000, which on
the high side was the government’s estimate in 1979.
“In
1980, the government was charged with over-hunting, (but instead of lowering
the limit, the government) raised the population estimate to 10,000-13,000,” he
said. “The government and the hunters have been playing up the population and
playing down the amount of poaching (to justify continued over-hunting)…”…
1998-05-27-3
The Trail
Times
by Lana Rodlie
[Anti-bear-hunting campaigner struggles
on]
After
failure to get enough signatures in 1996 to force a referendum on the hunting
of bears in the province, and after having his face seriously rearranged by
someone who doesn’t like his politics, Anthony Marr is back on the road, more
determined than ever, to put an end to the trophy hunting of the grizzly bear
in BC…
“The
BC Wildlife Federation and the government have worked close together since the
1940s to... maintain hunting. It is hunting policy for hunters, by hunters,”
Marr said…
1998-05-29-5 Capital News, Kelowna,
BC by
Judie Steeves
[Grisly details reveal the awful truth
about bear attacks]
…
In October 1995, this community was shocked by the deaths of a well-liked
Gorman Brothers’ Lumber employee and his buddy who were both killed by a
grizzly bear near Radium Hot Spring while they were hunting.
Yet,
Anthony Marr… was in town last week calling for a ban on grizzly bear hunting…
1998-05-30
The Daily Courier, Kelowna,
BC by C.W. Holford
[Hunt controls poaching]
To
the editor:
It
is apparent that Anthony Marr has embarked on another pilgrimage to ensure an
ample supply of grizzly bear parts for his countrymen’s medicinal chest…
Though
it does generate a great wealth for the few that Marr and his associates seem
to be cohesive with, poaching bears generates little if any tax revenue…
1998-06-05-5
West Kootenay Weekender, Nelson,
BC by Darren Davidson
[Profile: Conservationist Anthony Marr
bares his stripes]
Being
beaten for what you believe in is nothing exceptionally shocking for animal
conservationist Anthony Marr…
“I
don’t see being beaten up as being a personal sacrifice. It’s a professional
risk. It just comes with the job.”…
…
In 1996, Marr and WCWC launched one of the most high profile animal
conservation crusades Canada has ever seen…
DD: “Your story is certainly one of personal
conviction.”
AM: “Well, I have a lot of respect for
children. When young children, in
elementary school, tell me they think killing animals for fun is wrong, I feel
an obligation to champion their cause, because they cannot yet speak for
themselves. That is a very powerful
motivation for me… I also have my own personal feelings, of course… and I do
love these animals that they kill.”
1998-06-07-7
The Vancouver
Courier
by Gudrun Will
[Tiger volunteers paint mural to save
species]
On
a scalding Wednesday afternoon, underwear clad painters dab tropical sunset
colours on the front wall of downtown Davie Street hangout DV8. The artists are creating a tiger mural in preparation
for a silent art auction to help save the species.
...
Organizer Tracy Zuber, a tiny 29-year-old in black sports bra and plaid shorts,
is a self-professed tiger fanatic.
Images of the wild animal cover her apartment walls. “They're the personification of beauty,
power and grace. They're a figurehead
of primal life power,” said Zuber.
Her
preferred felines, however, are also a rapidly dwindling species; little more
than 4,000 are left in the wild, and two are killed per day. Zuber was inspired to raise funds to slow
down the tiger's beeline to extinction while participating in the
Save-the-Tiger Walk last fall with her daughter Fija. The Year of the Tiger seemed an appropriate time to make an
effort, she says...
…
conservationist Anthony Marr will present a slideshow that night…
1998-06-14-7
Capital News Weekend Close-Up by
Judie Steeves
[Loaded for bear - Bear hunting under
fire]
…
Anthony Marr… says that bear-watching eco-tourism can create more jobs and
revenue than bear hunting…
1998-06-19-5
Kamloops Daily News
[Group asks public to support ban on
grizzly bear hunts in BC]
Environmentalists
will try again to get a ban on grizzly bear hunting in BC, this time by going
straight to the people.
Anthony
Marr said that the latest campaign weapon is a “do it yourself postcard open
poll”.
The
WCWC will distribute thousands of postcards across BC and Canada, allowing
people to say what they think about grizzly bear hunting. The cards allow both hunters and environmentalists
to express their opinions.
The
“3-part-post-cards” - picturing a live grizzly bear on one part, and a dead one
with a grinning hunter on another - are addressed to Premier Glen Clark and the
BC legislature…
1998-07
Shared Vision magazine, Vancouver,
BC by Anthony Marr
[Losing our grip on the Grizzly?]
By
the time you read this, I’ll probably be debating with a group of a hundred
hostile hunters in a lecture hall somewhere in the BC interior, or busy eluding
some gun toting 4X4 tailgating my car on a deserted BC back road. Meanwhile, the Grizzly bear hunt continues,
and it must be stopped, for the following ten reasons:…
1998-07-03-5
The Globe and Mail, national
[Man set on saving grizzlies]
Vancouver
- Anthony Marr is renewing his effort
to ban grizzly bear hunting in BC despite a gruesome beating by an alleged
critic that left him with a broken nose and eye socket.
The
campaigner… hit the road yesterday to visit 30 BC communities to fire up
support for a bear-hunt ban that has been criticized by hunters…
1998-07-09-4
The Sun, Vernon, BC
[Activist wants bear hunting banned]
The
Canadian grizzly bear population should be glad they have a person like Anthony
Marr on their side…
During
his 30 city tour… Marr is urging people to sign postcards with an unnerving
photo of a dead grizzly bear on its cover…
Marr
said over 25,000 of the cards have already been sent out and plans to circulate
more than 200,000 by the time he is done his trip…
Canada
is seen as a very forward thinking country internationally, but Marr said this
country is lagging behind many Third World countries in terms of trophy
hunting… The country really does not deserve its
pro-environmental reputation, and it’s not a great country of spiritual development
until we’ve got rid of trophy hunting.”
1998-07-14-2
Penticton
Herald
by Donna Henningson
[Committee targeting grizzly hunt]
Ask
Anthony Marr where the light at the end of the tunnel is in his fight to stop
the grizzly bear hunt in BC.
“The
end of the tunnel is when the grizzly hunt is banned,” said the wildlife
campaigner…
1998-07-15-3 The
Daily News, Kamloops, BC by Robert
Koopmans
[Bleak future seen for grizzly]
Poaching,
habitat loss and trophy hunting will be the downfall of BC’s grizzly bears,
environmentalist Anthony Marr told a small group of people Tuesday night…
He
frequently compared the grizzly to tigers in India. In the space of a few decades, tiger populations have plummeted
from more than 50,000 to virtual extinction.
Marr said BC needs to look at the tigers and take steps to prevent a
similar catastrophe with the grizzlies.
One
man in the audience challenged Marr on his statements about hunters’ reasons
for killing grizzlies. Marr asked the
man why he would want to kill a grizzly anyway…
1998-07-16-4 The
Shuswap Sun, Salmon Arm by
Daniel McHardie
[Activist continuing fight to save bears]
…
Anthony Marr was in Salmon Arm to continue the fight against the killing… He said that of the eight species of bears
in the world, five have been hunted to the brink of extinction, and the
remaining three (the Grizzly bear, Polar bear and American Black bear) are
largely in Canada… “… but the Grizzly will be next, unless we take steps to
protect them now.”…
1998-07-17-5
Kamloops This
Week
by Elizabeth Duurtsema
[Anthony Marr: Halt bear hunt]
Cutting
both the supply and demand for endangered animal parts is key to saving bears,
tigers, elephants and rhinos, says a Vancouver-based environmentalist.
Speaking
in Kamloops on Tuesday night… Anthony Marr says he has addressed 32,000
students of all ethnic origins… “For
me, it’s an emotional drive to protect the animals I love. I’ll keep doing this
as long as one person sits and listens…”…
1998-07-17-5
Comox Valley Record
[Grizzly defender speaks]
Anthony
Marr… is returning to the Comox Valley on Thursday July 23 at 7 p.m. at the
Lower Native Sons Hall…
This
man has endured the threats and harassment of hunters across BC, and survived a
back alley attack in January of this year, all on account of his opposition to
recreational hunting of bears…
1998-07-18-6
The Daily News, Kamloops, BC by Mel
Rothenburger
[Saving BC’s grizzly bears a daunting
task]
Anthony
Marr has one of the toughest challenges on earth. In a world that values the preservation of cultural traditions,
he is trying to erase one of the most powerful. In the process, he hopes to
save several major animal species from extinction.
An
ambitious goal to say the least.
Despite devoting himself to it full time for the past several years, he
has obtained only limited success. But
that hasn’t discouraged him.
Marr
became a fairly well known media figure two years ago (and a despised one among
recreational hunters) when he championed an attempt to ban all bear hunting in
BC. He and WCWC failed… but he’s back
at it with a brand new strategy…
I
doubt that any policy will be changed this time either, but I admire Marr’s determination…
He
has a plan to pose as a wealthy Chinese businessman and secretly video-tape the
killing of a captive bear at a Korean “bear banquet”, “where they sometimes
lower a bear in a cage on to a bed of hot coal until their paws are cooked, for
maximum freshness and perhaps extreme entertainment,” said Marr.
It’s
a long way from China or Taiwan or Korea to the backwoods of BC where trophy
hunting takes place, but Marr is convinced that all of the atrocities against
bears must be dealt with together…
That
of course is where domestic opposition comes in…
A
meeting here during the referendum campaign brought out some serious heckling.
Almost disappointingly, there was little of that this time around. A debate with hunters is always fun, and
often productive, and Marr enjoys it…
Anthony
Marr has a huge job ahead of him, and I hope he will one day succeed.
It
is strange to me that those who kill animals for entertainment control wildlife
policy in this province, rather than those who want to keep them alive. If you doubt that, allow me to point out
that the BC Wildlife Federation, which is an organization of hunters, proposed
to Environment Minister Cathy McGregor earlier this year that non-hunters
should have to buy a license to use the woods.
She
said she will seriously look into it.
1998-07-19-7
Salmon Arm Shoppers’ Guide by
Ruth Keskinen
[Bear advocate physically assaulted]
…
“Even though I’ve had martial arts training, the attack was so sudden and
unexpected I didn’t stand a chance. I
didn’t even have time to turn the other cheek if I wanted to,” said Marr…
Anthony
Marr has made presentations to over 32,000 students throughout the province,
and the vast majority of them have voted with raised hands that the killing of
majestic wild animals for entertainment should be stopped…
1998-07-21-2
Comox Valley Echo
[Bear activist speaks here Thursday]
…
Local organizer Ruth Masters finds any killing of bears “atrocious” and reminds
that one bear is poached for every one legally killed. “And the bears don’t know if the guy pulling
the trigger had a license or not. They are still dead.”…
1998-07-24-5
Campbell River
Mirror
by Sharon Bennett
[Bear activist hits the road again]
…
The attack only stoked Marr’s fiery passion to save the grizzly, and for the
month of July he’s touring the province to warn the public of the grizzly’s
imminent demise.
…
He recounts the story of a South Korean man who was caught in possession of 88
bear gall bladders and four times as many paws - a street value of about
$500,000 US… He was fined CDN$3,500, roughly the same worth as one gall
bladder.
Marr
says he questioned the judge about why the fine was so low, and admitted the
judge’s argument makes sense… The trophy hunt is driven by European cultural
tradition, the judge said, and the medicinal hunt is driven by Asian cultural
tradition. Therefore, Marr says, the judge decided it would be wrong to punish
one culture’s tradition while the other culture’s tradition is still legal…
1998-07-24-5 The News Weekender,
Parksville/Qualicum by Jeff Vircoe
[Bearing the controversial issue to QB]
He’s
been beaten up for his opinions. He’s been called a turncoat by his own people.
And he may be the Grizzly bear’s best friend… A one-man wrecking crew for those
who believe hunting Grizzlies is okay, Marr’s controversial stance… has
irritated countless hunting enthusiasts…
When
hunters say that (bears will turn aggressive if not hunted), Marr says studies
in Glacier and Yellowstone National Parks show that bears do not get more
aggressive merely because they are protected…
1998-07-28-2
The Daily News, Nanaimo,
BC by Barry Peterson
[Sport Hunting appeals only to coarse
bullies]
Being
unable to attend today’s presentation (by Anthony Marr) at Beban Park… I wish
nonetheless to lend my wholehearted support to the cause…
…
that our government actually encourages this pathetically juvenile act of
outdated manhood… is a clue to a mentality so philosophically starved it is
almost frightening to contemplate…
1998-07-29-3
Comox Valley
Record
by Karen Kwan
[Speaker brings shocking story]
The
images are disturbing.
On
the parched ground, many elephants lie crumpled, their tusks removed, their
trunks just bloody stumps where they have been sawed off.
A
live tiger is strung upside down in a cage, hanging by his spread-eagled limbs,
while people peered between the bars, gawking.
Deep
in the woods, a bear cub, who had scrambled up a tree to get away from
poachers, was shot four times with arrows…
These
scenes weren’t made-in-Hollywood horror stories, but are all too real - some of
it happening right here in BC, according to animal conservationist Anthony
Marr… who was in Courtenay Thursday evening…
1998-07-29-3
The Westerly News, Ucluelet / Tofino
[Grizzly campaigner to speak]
…
Marr speaks at 7.00 p.m. during a slideshow presentation and discussion at the
Wickaninnish Elementary School on August 2.
1998-07-30-4
Campbell River Courier-Islander
by Denise Hayes
[WC polls public on Grizzly bear hunting]
…
Anthony Marr… believes poaching and legal hunting are both reprehensible
because both create the same result - a dead bear…
1998-07-30-4
Nanaimo Daily News
[Bear essentials aired at debate]
When
environmentalist Anthony Marr brought his campaign to ban grizzly bear hunting
to Nanaimo, his audience listened. Not
everyone in the Beban Park meeting room Tuesday night agreed with him, but they
all paid attention.
Bob
Morris, past-president of the BC Wildlife Federation, and Bill Derby,
vice-president of the Nanaimo Fish and Game Protection Association, were two of
a party of hunters who came to hear what Marr had to say about bear
hunting. And to challenge his
conclusions.
Morris
didn’t trust Marr’s motives, or those of WCWC.
“Basically
their goal is to try and ban hunting altogether, using the grizzly bear as an
icon.” Marr replied that that would be
a glorious quest, but one too distant for his remaining life span.
Derby
said the grizzly bear hunt is “very tightly controlled”, taking fewer bears
than die as road kill. Morris said
there was no need to ban the hunt, as the grizzly population is rising. Marr replied that grizzly bear hunt victims
number about 300, higher than the road kill number, and that even according to
the BC government, the grizzly bear population is decreasing in the long run.
Derby
said banning hunting might lead to more bears getting killed, because as they
got more accustomed to being around people, they would get bolder.
Marr
answered that he’s heard all these arguments before. There was no evidence that stopping the hunt would make the bears
more dangerous, such as in the Yellowstone and Glacier National Park, where
grizzly hunting is not allowed…
Marr’s
campaign has won him a variety of enemies…
1998-07-30-4
The Powell River
Peak
by Isabelle Southcott
[Activist improves public awareness of
grizzlies]
Canadian
grizzly bear activist Anthony Marr was in Powell River last week…
Marr’s
push to save grizzlies is fueled by his disdain for recreational- and
trophy-hunting traditions…
Also,
Marr said the maximum penalty of $25,000 (for grizzly poaching) is not enough and
should be ten times higher, plus jail time.
“Because they can make so much money, the current fine to them is just
the cost of doing business.”…
1998-07-31-5
The News Weekender, Parksville /
Qualicum by Rebecca Stevenson
[The facts contested - Anthony Marr’s message alarms
conservationists of all stripes]
Anthony
Marr has a history of being targeted by hunters, and his presentation to about
30 area residents Monday was no exception.
Marr…
was greeted by local hunting advocates with a reaction he calls “typical”…
As
a Chinese Canadian, Marr feels he is in a good position to fight (the
traditional Oriental use of bear and tiger parts) traditions because of his
heritage. However, he has still
encountered vicious racism from Caucasian opponents.
“Some
say, ‘You should go back to Chinatown and clean up your own mess.’ Another guy
wrote a letter-to-the-editor saying, ‘Anthony Marr is trying to ban the bear
hunt so his countrymen have more bears to poach,’” said Marr.
The
activist has also paid a price for his high-profile campaign. Irate opponents have threatened, insulted,
targeted, even assaulted Marr.
That
hasn’t deterred Marr from spreading his message…
A
downside of hunting is that it is anti-evolutionary, said Marr, because trophy hunters
go for the most magnificent specimens in prime breeding condition, leaving the
lesser ones to reproduce. Enough of
this happening, and the quality of the species declines, he said.
The
hunters at Monday’s presentation argued that without their presence as a
“conservation force”, more grizzlies would die at the hands of the poachers.
Marr
asked, “If the hunters are such effective heroes, why don’t they go and hunt
evil poachers instead of innocent bears?”
He
said that relying on hunters to watch out for poachers is “like relying on
wolves to safeguard sheep against coyotes, with apologies to wolves and
coyotes.”…
1998-07-31-5
Times Colonist, Victoria,
BC by Cindy E. Harnett
[Crusade against grizzly hunt reaches
Victoria]
Anthony
Marr’s renewed campaign to ban grizzly bear hunting will take the high, rocky
road to Victoria for a slideshow tonight at 7:30 p.m. in University of
Victoria’s law building and a rally at the legislature on Saturday… This stop
is one of the last in a month-long, province-wide tour…
Marr’s
visits are known to spark fiery debates between hunters and non-hunters…
On
a moral standpoint, Marr said this week, “… The moral reason alone… is big
enough to ban hunting for entertainment and ego.”
But
BC Wildlife Federation immediate past-president John Holdstock said morality
has nothing to do with hunting…
1998-07-31-5
The Victoria
News
by Stephanie Coombs
[Rally against bear hunt targets
legislature]
…
Anthony Marr, who will be speaking at the rally… says the government isn’t
managing the province’s grizzly bear population appropriately, and that they
are caving in (and have been doing so for the last half century) to trophy
hunters’ demands. (“Some of them are trophy hunters themselves.”)…
The
WCWC says independent biologists peg the provincial grizzly population at about
4,000-7,000, but the BC Ministry of Environment, Lands and Parks says its
studies place the population at 10,000-13,000.
“The
grizzly population is decreasing over the long term - slowly over the last 200
years - but we can’t say by how much at present,” says Nancy Bircher, the
director of the wildlife branch at the ministry…
Bircher
says about 300 Grizzlies are legally killed each year by people with licenses,
another 50 are termed “nuisance kills” - due to conflict with humans - and
about 90 die as unreported kills or from poachers.
“The
poaching figure is absolutely unfounded and hugely at odds with what
international authorities report,” says Marr.
“They estimate a continental average of one bear poached for every bear
legally hunted. They also estimate that BC is among the most poached amongst
all the North American states and provinces. According to this, the
poached/hunted ratio should be more than one to one, not one to three.”
He
says the province is intentionally skewing the facts to favour hunters.
“They
project as high a population number and as low a poaching number as possible to
give the general public the impression there are so many grizzlies that not
only can they be hunted, but that they should be hunted, otherwise they’ll turn
aggressive against humans,” he says. He adds that the no-hunting policy in US
parks like Yellowstone and Glacier show that bears do not become aggressive to
humans if not hunted…”
1998-07-31-5 Times
Colonist, Victoria, BC by
Christopher Genovali
[Grizzly hunting on a par with ivory
slaughter]
…WCWC
will be holding a rally on Saturday at the legislature, starting at 1 p.m. to
raise public awareness regarding the need to end the grizzly bear trophy hunt.
Featured speakers will include wildlife campaigner Anthony Marr and WCWC
founder Paul George…
…Virtually
all grizzly bears could be exterminated in BC by trophy hunters and poachers,
while the habitat measurements used by the province would continue to calculate
a theoretical potential bear abundance and continue to establish a harvestable
surplus…
1998-08
EcoNews, Guy Dauncey
[Let’s get civilized – No more grizzly
hunting!]
OK
- so I'm not a hunter, and I've been a vvegetarian for 30 years. I still think that it's unbelievably
primitive, barbaric, cruel and stupid to hunt Grizzly Bears. Just because they're large, beautiful and
non-human, do we have to shoot it ?
Back in 1996, Anthony Marr undertook a 12,000 km road tour around BC
with the Western Canada Wilderness Committee, gathering 90,000 signatures to
trigger a referendum to ban bear-hunting.
It wasn't enough, but now Anthony is on the road again in an attempt to
get grizzly bear hunting banned, in spite of threats to his life. The grizzly population has declined by
nearly half since European settlers arrived. With continuing habitat loss,
hunting and poaching, the decline is continuing. Of 8 species of bear in the world today, 5 have been pushed to
the brink of extinction. The 6th is the
brown bear, of which the grizzly is a subspecies. Anthony is in Duncan on July 29th and in Victoria on Friday July
31st (see Diary), followed by a Rally at the Legislature. If you can help by phoning to tell supporters
about the slide presentation and the rally, call Jessica at 388-9292.
1998-08-02-7
The Pictorial, Cowichan Valley, BC by
Peter Rusland
[Grizzly bear save talk draws criticism]
Environmentalist
Anthony Marr knows he’s fighting a battle against time to save BC’s grizzly
bears.
Statistics,
education and media coverage are his weapons against trophy hunting of grizzly
bears and illegal bear poaching.
Marr
blasted those practices during Wednesday’s meeting in the Cowichan Community
Centre where two dozen hunters and preservationists hotly debated the issue…
“All
I’m pleading for is for 300 grizzlies to be spare per year. Is this all that
much to ask?” said Marr….
1998-08-02-7
The Citizen, Cowichan Valley,
BC by Gerry Giroux
[Grizzly bear presentation draws heated
debated from hunters]
Anthony
Marr got more than he bargained for when he came to town (Duncan) Wednesday
night…
Marr
presented a video and slideshow on poaching of endangered animals around the
world… filled with staggering facts and statistics about the decline of many of
the species especially the tiger…
He
tied the grizzly bear situation in with the plight of the tiger. Marr showed reports saying wild tigers will
be extinct by 2005 due to poaching, habitat loss and other cause.
If
a ban was put on hunting them when their numbers were roughly the same as those
of the grizzly today, maybe the tiger would stand a better chance of survival…
The
hunters in the audience didn’t like this one bit. Ray Demarchi voiced the loudest opposition. Demarchi is the retired chief of wildlife
conservation for the BC government and one of the authors of the provincial
grizzly bear conservation strategy that Marr was citing as allowing an
excessive hunt of grizzlies…
1998-08-02-7
Times Colonist, Victoria, BC by
Cindy E. Harnett
[Grizzlies attract 150 supporters at
rally]
…
Main speakers included WCWC founder Paul George and wildlife campaigner Anthony
Marr. Many in the audience had helped
to gather signatures for WCWC’s 1996 campaign in which about 90,000 signatures
were obtained to save BC’s bears.
At
that time, Environment Minister Cathy McGregor did not act on any of the
organization’s three requests: to stop bear hunting, to further protect bear
habitat or to increase fines for poachers.
The minister re-stated her commitment to hunters last week.
“Trophy
hunting is a concern to some British Columbians, but there are real economic
benefits to hunting around the province.
In the interior, hunting is very much a way of life and the way in which
some areas of our province gain economic opportunity,” she said…
Marr
says there are (possibly as few as) 4,000 to 7,000 grizzlies left. He expects in 20-30 years, they will be
extinct in almost all of BC if no action is taken.
1998-08-17-1
Times Colonist, Victoria,
BC by Anthony Marr
[Grizzly situation]
…Perhaps
most fundamentally, I speak for more than 30,000 school children who have voted
almost unanimously that of all the reasons for which bears are killed in BC,
including for medicine and profit, that to kill them for entertainment and ego
gratification is the most immoral of all…
1998-09-02-3
The Japan
Times by Françoise
Giovannangeli
[An unbearable prospect - a Canadian icon
faces new and growing threats]
…
“Most countries have banned trophy hunting of grizzlies - all except Canada,
Russia and the US state of Alaska,” said Anthony Marr. “That is why so many foreign hunters are
coming to Canada - because they can’t do it in their own countries where the
brown bear has become endangered or been wiped out. It’s the Canadian grizzly that is soaking up and absorbing the
pressure of trophy hunting lust from around the world as well as the profit
lust of poachers,” he said….
If
the pace keeps up, Marr says, the future does not bode well for North American
bears. “Asiatic bears were not endangered a couple of decades ago. Today, they have been hunted to the verge of
extinction by the demands of Japan, Korea, Taiwan and Singapore. The Chinese economy is improving fast, and
pretty soon, there will be a huge middle class. I believe that at that point, there will be a huge jump in demand
for bear galls far in excess of the current already high level. It may have
already started. And the target will be
the North American bears this time around.”…
1998-09
The Vancouver Sun
[Champions return to Discovery]
“It
took the tiger 10 million years to evolve to its present state of
magnificence,” says Anthony Marr, “but less than one century to fall to the
brink of extinction. This, sadly, is
the way of humans.”
The
Chinese-born Canadian is featured in the Bengal Tiger of India episode of the
award-winning TV documentary series Champions of the Wild, now in its second
season on Discovery Channel…
Each
episode highlights the efforts of a particular conservationist, from Clark
Lungren’s work in the Nazinga Game Reserve, airing October 5, to Marr’s
multi-faceted campaign to protect the tiger on October 12…
Champions
of the Wild was produced by Omni Film Productions, in association with the
National Film Board, BC Film, and the Discovery Channel, with the participation
of Telefilm and the Cable Production Fund.
1998-09-14-1
Times Colonist, Victoria, BC by
Cindy E. Harnett
[Seaborne protest in native whaling
controversy]
…
“I respect native rights, but we human beings are past the point where we need
to kill these beings to survive…,” Marr said… “Tradition to me, which is so
sacred to so many people, is actually a dirty word, because it stands in the
way of the evolution of the human spirit.”
The
World Council of Whalers, a 20 country group, was put together two years ago to
ready people for hunts all over the world. The Makah have accused animal-rights
activists of trying to “put their culture into a museum.”
Marr
said the reverse is true. “A living
culture evolves with the times and is not stuck in the past. If they want to go into the past and
maintain the status quo, they are putting themselves into a museum.”
1998-09-18-5
The Globe and Mail,
national
by Celia Sankar
[BC won’t end annual grizzly hunt; minister says no harm done to
bear population]
The
BC government is not about to stop the province’s annual grizzly-bear hunt,
despite criticism from environmentalists and dissent from one of its own
biologists…
A
senior habitat biologist with the BC Ministry of Environment said hunting as
administered by the province “has the potential to drive grizzly bear populations
dangerously close to extinct. There is
no ecological, biological or social justification for continuing to hunt
grizzly bears,” Dionys de Leeuw wrote in a private paper widely distributed to
wildlife officials within the ministry April.
Mr.
De Leeuw argued that the system for issuing licenses for bear hunting “is based
on unconfirmed population estimates for grizzly bears” that “substantially
overestimate bear abundance.”
Mr.
De Leeuw’s paper, copies of which were (confiscated) by ministry officials, was
leaked yesterday by the WCWC.
“The
Canadian authorities list the grizzly as a vulnerable species and we should not
allow it to cross the line and become endangered. We think it is quite close
right now,” Anthony Marr said.
Mr.
De Leeuw described as “an injustice in the extreme” the situation where the
interest of “an infinitesimally small” number of trophy hunters continue to be
protected by the government while those who oppose the activity are ignored…
1998-10
Bengal Tigers. (Champions of the Wild
Series, 18).
Andrew
Gardner (Director), Christian Bruyere (Producer), Michael Chechik (Executive
Producer). National Film Board of
Canada, 1998. 25 min., 30 sec. Grades 4 and up / Ages 9 and up. Review by Susan Fonseca.
This
video opens with a carefully edited scene of a Bengal Tiger patiently stalking
and then attacking its prey. The plight
of the tiger in India is very serious.
At the turn of the century, there were over 100,000 tigers. This number
quickly diminished to 30,000 by the 1940's due to the trophy hunting which was
a national sport. Conservationist
Anthony Marr has championed the cause of the tiger for two reasons. He believes that “if the tiger is gone from
this land, the land will have lost its soul.”
He also understands that one of the greatest threats to the tiger's
survival today is the huge Chinese market for tiger parts. A dead tiger is worth $100,000 in China
where it is believed that, next to the mythical dragon, the tiger is the most
powerful animal. Through Chinese medicines,
healers use tiger parts to transfer that power to humans. Being Chinese himself, Marr believes that he
may have a greater impact.
The
video contains brilliant camera work which captures the power and beauty of the
tiger. The sound track echoes the India
countryside by using instruments native to the land. The narration is clear and easily understood. Many of the scenes are very graphic, showing
tigers tearing apart gazelles or revealing hunters and poachers destroying the
tiger for its pelt or bones. These
scenes are balanced, however, by the joy of a playful young kitten or a
delightful scene that allows the viewer to watch as a very hot tiger gingerly
and slowly sinks into a cool pond of water.
Marr
has targeted children as one of the avenues of support for these endangered
creatures. This goal will probably be
most effective with the children in India, but the biggest obstacle will be the
poor Indian villagers who have been displaced without compensation so that the
government can create sanctuaries for the tiger. Incentives are now being created that will offer these people a
better life if they will help to save these endangered animals.
Bengal
Tigers has aired on Discovery Channel and Animal
Planet. The video also
includes previewing questions and post-viewing questions in addition to several
web sites. The video would support a
study of endangered animals and also could offer many opportunities for the
students to problem solve and to create their own solutions.
Highly
Recommended.
Susan
Fonseca is a teacher-librarian at Glenwood School in St. Vital School Division
in Winnipeg, MB.
1998-10-02
Victoria News
by Bev Wake
[Grizzly population overestimated]
…
In Victoria again last week, Marr looked intent, yet weary, as he held up the
leaked document (by Dionys de Leeuw - see 1998-09-1805 Global and Mail
article)…
The
document backs Marr’s belief that the ministry has overestimated BC’s grizzly
bear population…
“We
must begin to protect our bears today,” Marr says. “Our objective is to prevent them from becoming endangered… It’s
a vicious spiral… It is a double-edged sword for a species to be declared
endangered, because it drives up the black market value, thus encouraging more
poaching. We can see that cloud on the horizon,” he says…
Part
of the problem, he says, is that BC’s hunting policy is set by three bodies -
the provincial Environment Ministry, the BC Wildlife Federation and the BC
Guide-Outfitters’ Association, all of which, Marr charges, has vested interests
in hunting.
Again,
de Leeuw’s report backs Marr up, saying “BC’s decision regarding grizzly bear
allocation have almost exclusively accommodated the interests of trophy
hunters, who make up less than one tenth of one percent of the people.”
1998-10-05
Monday
magazine by Ross Crockford
[Splendor Sine Occasu]
…Saturday
morning, I went down to the legislature grounds to hear a speech by Anthony
Marr…
I
asked Marr whether it wouldn’t be better to allow limited trophy hunting, as
they’ve done with elephants in South Africa, and put thousands of dollars in
taxes on the licenses and then plow them into regional projects… Marr replied that grizzly viewing was a
better option. He knows of a lodge in Knight
Inlet that takes foreign tourists to watch bears feeding on salmon, and charges
them $700 a day, and employs 22 people.
The only problem is that hunters gun down the bears the moment they step
out of the tiny protected area around the salmon stream, and the tourists get
very upset. The old economy and the new one aren’t mixing very well…
1998-10-05-1
Times Colonist, Victoria,
BC by Richard Watts
[Greenpeace neutral on whaling]
Greenpeace
- which made its name battling to save wwhales from being hunted to extinction -
is now sitting firmly on the fence over the Makah hunt…
John
Vanderhoeven, director of field operations for the provincial SPCA, said the
group is opposed to the inhumane killing of any creature… “I’m not sure how a
person could bring about the humane death of a whale,” said Vanderhoeven.
Anthony
Marr… said, “We oppose killing whales, whether for cultural or economic
reasons, if only one account of the inevitable cruelty.”
And
he says his group is appalled by the Canadian government’s decision to allow
the Makah to pursue a wounded whale into Canadian waters to finish it off.
Marr
says the Canadian position was like a wounded man coming to your door for help,
“and you invite the assailant in to finish the job.”
Meanwhile
the Nuu-Cha-Nulth Indians of southwest Vancouver Island, who include the
Washington Makah among their members, say the hunt is justified and are
supporting the Makah hunters…
1998-10-06-2 Penticton
Harold by Anthony Marr
[Whale’s rights come first]
I
respect aboriginal rights, but I respect even more the right of whales to live,
and live in peace and harmony with humans…
The
Pacific Grey whales annually migrate up and down the North American coast… have
been living in peace and harmony with humans for more than 70 years. They’ve
come to enjoy human company and allow us the privilege of touching them.
If
now a few humans begin to kill them, I would consider our species as a whole to
be betraying the sacred trust established with another sentient species. A few whale will lose their lives, but Homo
sapiens will lose its humanity…
1998-10-09-5
The
Vancouver Sun by Anthony Marr
[Whales shouldn’t be on the sushi menu]
…
The Japanese and Norwegians are strong backers of the Makah’s “right” to kill
whales. They have given at least
US$10,000 for the Makah’s whaling campaign.
These
pirate whaling nations are not acting out of interest in the Makah as a people
or respect for aboriginal right. They
are using them as a can opener to restart whaling for “cultural need”. Once the Makah succeed in taking their first
whale, the Japanese and Norwegians can then claim the right to whale for
“cultural need” of their own.
Tom
Happynook, a Nuu-Cha-Nulth relative of the Makah and head of the World Council
of whalers, say the Japanese are justified in continuing to kill whales and
dolphins for so-called “scientific” reasons in the face of a global whaling ban
by IWC. Maybe he can tell me how much science is involved in consuming a plate
of whale sushi…
1998-10-11-7
The Province, Vancouver
by Jonathan
McDonald
[Species run for their lives]
Premier
- Champions of the Wild - Mondays at 6 aand 10 p.m. on Discovery Channel.
…
this 13-part series is only partly about the animals who are running for their
lives. It’s mainly about the people - Canadians by and large - who are doing
whatever they can to reverse increasingly hopeless situations.
“It’s
vital,” says Anthony Marr, a Vancouverite who heads the Tigers Forever campaign
and is the subject of “Bengal Tigers of India”, which premiers Monday night on
Discovery Channel. “The tiger is an
icon of wildlife conservation. It is one of the world’s most admired and also
most endangered animals. If it falls extinct, the whole global conservation
effort will lose steam, and the world will lose an immeasurable amount of
beauty.”
Marr
is not kidding. Seeing the Bengal tiger sleep, prowl and hunt is wondrous.
Seeing the work of poachers - tiger skins and medicines - is no less than
horrifying and offensive. And seeing
Marr sit down in an Indian village to tell the children about the beauty of the
tiger - an animal, he urges, that deserves to be on Earth - is the perfect
reflection of Canadians’ work around the globe.
“They’re
extremely dedicated,” says Chris Bruyere, Champion’s producer… “Often, these
are people who don’t believe there’s such a thing as fighting a losing
battle.”…
1998-10-11-7
Ming Pao Daily News (Chinese), global
[Chinese campaigner saving 4,000 remaining
wild tigers]
The
WCWC set up booth at the Vancouver Public Library Saturday to publicize tiger
conservation, and will lead the Save-the-Tiger Walk at Stanley Park next
Saturday…
Anthony
Marr says that of the original 8 subspecies of tigers, only 5 remain, totaling
no more than 4 or 5 thousand, of which two die daily to poaching and other
causes. At this rate, there will be no tigers left to celebrate the next Year
of the Tiger…
1998-10-18-7
Ming Pao Daily News (Chinese), global
[100 walk to save 4,000 tigers]
…
Last year’s Save-the-Tiger Walk brought out 2,000 people and raised almost
$20,000 for tiger conservation.
Unfortunately, this year’s Walk picked the worse possible time
weatherwise. Only 100 people showed up to brave the heavy rain and high winds…
1998-10-22-4
Nelson Daily News by Anthony Marr
[Rights of whales must supersede
aboriginal rights]
…
I have no doubt that whales are not only sentient but intelligent. Even small cetaceans like dolphins have
brains larger and more convoluted than ours.
They have sophisticated social and behavioural patterns. They have complex languages and different
Orca pods have different dialects. The
songs of the humpback changes from year to year… We may freely give each other the right to kill these highly
advanced beings, but in the high scheme of things, we have no right to give
such a right to anyone…
Tradition
to me is not the sacred word that so many uphold it to be. To me, tradition often stand in the way of
human intellectual and spiritual evolution…
I urge all to examine their own traditions and voluntarily shed those
elements within them that are no longer consistent with today’s environmental
and humane principles. I ask those
within the aboriginal communities to follow the lead of the Makah’s Alberta
Thompson to voluntarily forego the whale-killing element of their tradition.
Finally,
I must make one thing clear. I am
against killing whales, period, for any reason, by anyone, be they Japanese,
Norwegian, Russian or Makah.
1998-11-07
Toronto
Sun
by Michael Clement
[Animal Parts illegally sold here:
activist]
A
west-coast wildlife activist alleges he purchased three bottles containing
parts of endangered species, being sold illegally in a store in Toronto’s
Chinatown yesterday…
Marr
asked reporters to accompany him to the Po Chi Tong Chinese pharmacy on Dundas
St. W. yesterday where he purchased the three bottles. The bottles of pills purportedly contained
bear gall bladder secretion, possibly from the endangered Asiatic Black bear,
secretions from the musk gland of the endangered Musk Deer, and tiger bone,
possibly from the endangered Bengal or Siberian Tiger, Marr said.
“Internationally,
endangered species are totally forbidden to be traded, alive or dead, in whole
or part,” he said, adding that in June 1996 Ottawa enacted laws “forbidding the
sale of anything containing endangered species parts.”
“The
point of this exercise is to prove that the law is not being effectively
enforced.”…
1998-11-26-4
Nelson Daily
News
by Bob Hall
[Kids in the tiger’s grasp]
Anthony
Marr… is touring area schools this week promoting the Save-the-Tiger
campaign. With the help of the Nelson
Youth Environmental group who put on a play of Dr. Seuss’s The Lorax followed
by Marr’s slideshow… Wednesday morning,
Marr talked to Hume Elementary School students in front of a 12 foot high, 50
feet long inflatable tiger prop. To
bring further attention to the issue there will be a Save-the-Tiger Walk-a-thon
this Saturday at Lakeside Park starting at 11 a.m. For more information contact the Nelson Eco-Centre.
1998-12-02-3
Trail Daily
News
by Lana Rodlie
[WCWC shares extinction fears with area
students]
…
Bring the message about diminishing tigers to area schools, Anthony Marr is
hoping to save the tiger, one child at a time…
Pointing
out how every living thing affect the life of something else, he asked the
children, ‘How many cows do you think live in India?’
Would
you believe at least 350 million?
Cows
eat grass. Deer eat grass. Tigers eat deer. If the cows eat up all the grass, what do you think will happen
to the deer, and the tiger?…
“Still,
if you go into an Indian national park, you’re not allowed to touch anything,
take anything, not even pick a blade of grass.
But would you believe in a BC park, you are allowed to kill grizzly
bears?”