Environment ministry describes
video of Josh Bowmar fatally spearing a bear ‘archaic’ and ‘unacceptable’ as
Bowmar defends killing as ethical
Tuesday 16 August
201622.08 BSTLast modified on Tuesday 16 August 201623.53 BST
Authorities in the Canadian
province of Alberta have vowed to ban spear hunting and are weighing whether to
lay charges against an American hunter after a video surfaced showing him
killing a black bear with a spear.
The video –
one of several hunting videos posted to the YouTube account of Josh Bowmar –
shows Bowmar holding a long spear with a GoPro camera attached to it as a
mature bear repeatedly approaches a bait bin set up to lure it to the site.
After the bear nears for the
third time, Bowmar, a college javelin champion and Ohio-based fitness trainer,
launches the spear. He falls to his knees in excitement as he realises he
struck the bear. “He’s going down. I drilled him perfect. That was the longest
throw I thought I could ever make,” he tells the camera. “I just did something I
don’t think anybody in the entire world has ever done and that was spear a bear
on the ground on film. And I smoked him.”
His delight continues as he finds
the spear, cast off by the bear as it ran into the woods, and examines the
blood marks on it. “Oh yeah, I got mad penetration,” he says. “These things are
absolute lethal killing machines.”
The video was seen more than
200,000 times before its setting was changed to private on Monday.
The Alberta environment ministry
described the spear hunt seen in the video as “archaic” and “unacceptable”.
A ban on spear hunting will be
introduced this fall as part of an update to the province’s hunting
regulations, a spokesperson for the ministry said in a statement. “In the
meantime, we have asked Fish and Wildlife officers
to investigate this incident to determine if charges are warranted under
existing laws.”
The video credits Alberta-based
outfitters John and Jenn Rivet for organising the hunt. They did not respond to
a request for comment.
In an email to the Guardian,
Bowmar defended the use of a spear to hunt. “First and foremost, spear hunting
gives the animal the greatest chance of escape, considering our ethical killing
range is within 10 yards.”
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