Saskatchewan hunters and advocacy groups are speaking out after the Saskatchewan government extended the elk hunting season into March for three areas of the province.
In a rare extension of the traditional hunting season, the provincial government is offering licences for elk hunting from March 10 to 31. The licences are limited to hunting within WMZ 39, west of Yorkton, the RM of Stanley, northeast of Fort Qu’Appelle, and the RM of Leask, north of Saskatoon.
The government says the extended hunting is permitted due to wildlife damage on farms, and to collect samples of bovine tuberculosis in WMZ 39 and RM of Stanley.
The announcement was met by opposition from animal rights and Indigenous groups, who say the hunt is unethical and breaks Indigenous cultural norms. Offering licences in March will mean the vast majority of the female elk hunted will be several months pregnant.
On March 12, legal advocacy group Animal Justice sent a letter to Saskatchewan’s Minister of the Environment Travis Keisig, arguing the move was contrary to Saskatchewan’s Animal Protection Act.
Animal Justice claimed that hunting pregnant elk during this time of year contravenes the Act’s prohibition on causing undue distress for animals whilst hunting. The Act does stipulate exceptions to that rule, as long as they fall within “reasonable and generally accepted practices” of hunting.
According to Kaitlyn Mitchell, the group’s Director of Legal Advocacy, that exception has not been met.
“It really runs in the face of the rule of law to expand the goalposts,” she said. “Just because some folks want to shoot elk in the spring, suddenly we’re going to consider that to also be reasonable, generally accepted. It’s just not.”
“We are talking about sentient, social, intelligent animals who deserve our compassion and respect.”
Goes against cultural values: FSIN
The Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations (FSIN), which represents 74 First Nations in Saskatchewan, has also called on the government to halt the licensing process. It says the decision goes against its cultural values on the hunting of pregnant elk, and was done without its consultation.
“It’s hard to put into words, but you just don’t do that. You don’t go and kill babies that are in the tummies of sacred animals such as the elk,” said FSIN chief Bobby Cameron. “There are other methods, other means, other ways of addressing the older population.”
“We’ll say this to all the land owners, farm farmers out there. If you’re running into this problem, phone us.”
For some hunters, the ethics of hunting pregnant elk come down to a definition of what constitutes a pregnancy.
In Saskatchewan the typical elk hunting season runs between September and late December, usually for short windows of a few weeks. Preventing hunting outside of these areas is meant to allow elk populations to bear calves in the summer. Female elk — known as cows — mate in the fall and are pregnant for about 250 days, meaning many are already pregnant during the official hunting season.
Rebecca Russell, an elk hunter from Last Mountain Lake north west of Regina, says that’s a key distinction.
“You’re still shooting a cow and it could possibly still be pregnant. But my view of it is if you’re shooting it later in the year, say September, they’re pregnant, but it’s not a breathing calf,” she said. “Most likely [in March] they are breathing inside the cow. So they’re alive, but they’re not born yet.”
“I kind of understand why they’re doing it. I just don’t agree when they’re doing it,” she said, noting that she’s spoken to several hunters who have bought the hunting tags with the intention of not using them, “saving two cows and two elk.”
Russell suggests an alternative of selling more hunting tags and expanding the hunting windows, allowing for greater population control where elk populations cause damage to farms.
Bovine tuberculosis worries
In a statement, the government of Saskatchewan confirmed it had received Animal Justice’s letter and acknowledged the concerns from the FSIN.
“The decision to allow additional hunting opportunities is not made lightly and is influenced by a variety of factors,” it said, referencing above-average reported damage claims in the three hunting areas and emphasizing the worry about the spread of bovine tuberculosis.
According to the government, a cow from a herd in southeastern Saskatchewan recently tested positive for bovine tuberculosis, the second case found in the province since 2023.
As a condition of the March hunting licence, the statement read, any elk taken from RM of Stanley or WMZ 39 must have its head submitted for testing for bovine tuberculosis.
“Wildlife surveillance is a component of every bovine tuberculosis investigation, as it is important to ensure that the disease has not spilled over into surrounding populations of susceptible wildlife,” it said.
For Ryan Brook, a professor at the University of Saskatchewan College of Agriculture and Bioresources, the threat of bovine tuberculosis is a strong reason to undertake the extended hunt.
The disease, which can spread between wild elk and cattle herds via hay bales, can be hugely destructive for farms, Brook said. And if the disease is detected in even a single animal, he said, then the entire herd would have to be removed and destroyed.
“I think that testing is very, very critical,” he said. “The notion of just not collecting any more samples in March and waiting ’til fall? Bovine TB can spread very, very rapidly. And once it becomes established in the wildlife population, it’s very difficult, if not impossible to eradicate.”
“So timing is of the essence, and I support any and all actions that are aggressive and proactive to get in front of this,” he said.
“Concerns about ethics are certainly not lost on me, or anybody else that I’ve talked to about this. And so these are very legitimate and appropriate things to think and talk about. But again, there is no simple answer.”
