Tensions high at Short Hills Provincial Park ahead of Haudenosaunee deer hunt

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Tensions were running high last night as pro and anti-hunt demonstrators gathered outside Short Hills Provincial Park in Niagara during the annual Haudenosaunee deer hunt.

Animal right activists say they’re against the hunt, but supporters say the activists are not respecting their right to hunt.

The provincial park has been closed to the public for the annual Aboriginal Harvest.

The 660 hecatre park is bound by Pelham, Thorold and St.Catharines.

Robin and Craig Zavitz’s property backs onto the park and they say hunters have an unfair advantage.

“They lack the flee and fear mechanism that the wildlife should have. They stop and look at you.”

The pair have been gathering with other animal rights activists every morning around three as hunters and their supporters arrive.

Last night tempers flared.

“What does it mean as a Haudenosaunee woman to see a placquered put in my face that says shame.” said Celeste Smith.

The Ministry of Natural Resources allows hunters from the Haudenosaunee Confederacy to exercise their treaty rights with a traditional bow-only deer hunt over six days.

“When you deny a people a culture, when you deny them your tradition, when you continue to colonize them in those ways that have been happening for over 400 years in this country – that is racism.” said Smith.

Robin Zavitz says she has nothing against indigenous people, but is worried about public safety and damage to the park from the large trucks the hunters use.

“I don’t think there should be anybody hunting in provincial parks. this is not about who is hunting.”

According to the Ministry of Natural Resources, 34 deer were killed in the first two weekends of the harvest.

‘It isn’t a cull. We don’t go in and obliterate the population. We keep the population in check.” said Bruce Smith.

The Ministry says in 2015 there were over 440 deer in the park, which it says is about 10 times what the park is capable of supporting.