041161 Canadian Rancher Offers Up Cattle to Hunters

Vancouver, Canada - Canadian cattle rancher Ed Wedman has found a solution to his financial troubles caused by a 17-month-old US ban on Canadian beef: for a fee, he will let hunters shoot down his cows.

Wedman placed an advertisement in his local newspaper last week, offering in bold letters: "Hunters welcome. Hunt beef, no license required. 500 dollars (419 US). Phone 916-0788."

But hunters may never get to fire a single shot at his Holstein steer as the rancher from the western province of Alberta faces sanitary regulations and lots of red tape.

Wedman has suffered financially from a US ban on Canadian beef that was imposed after a single case of Mad Cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy was discovered in Canada last year.

"Farmers have all talked over coffee tables about opening cow shooting galleries because we're frustrated," Wedman said. "Every day you wake up, farmers lose money. How much money do they expect me to lose?"

Wedman got the idea after watching deer hunters wander through his property near the town of Leduc, south of Edmonton.

"Here's a macho man who's paid for a license to go out and kill a scrawny deer and drag it out of the bush to bring home to the family, get maybe 20 or 40 pounds (nine or 18 kilograms) of meat. I figured if I was going to have to give my cows away, I'd try something radical," he said.

"People go house-hunting, job-hunting, why not beef-hunting," he quipped.

The local branch of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals did not oppose the idea but said the hunting should be done humanely.

But Wedman must overcome Canadian regulations.

Canada's meat inspection act requires that Wedman have an abattoir or slaughterhouse license and meet strict sanitation requirements. Killing the animal in a field or corral does not meet those requirements.

An official with the Alberta Agriculture, Food and Rural Development department said he does not want to put any farmer in jail, and that he hoped the possible maximum 10,000-dollar (8,380 US dollar) fine will convince Wedman to abandon his plan.

"There isn't a lot of sport for an avid hunter to go out and shoot a cow, but it's not illegal," said Cliff Munroe, head of Alberta Agriculture food safety division branch.

"Where it becomes a problem is if they butcher the animal on the property and take the carcass for consumption," Munroe said.

"If a producer allowed 15 or 20 people to come onto his property to kill animals, suddenly you've got an outdoor slaughter plant and you have to deal with food safety issues, food contamination."

But, Wedman asked, if deer can be hunted, why not cows?

"We've had chronic wasting disease (a neurological disease similar to BSE) in the local deer population long before we had BSE," he said.

"They've told me that I cannot offer up a hand-fed domesticated animal, but you can go out and shoot whatever is walking around and you don't know what it has eaten."

Wedman said he received more than 100 calls about his ad, including two hunters, 30 people who wished to take one of his 17 cows to an abattoir to get butchered, and a handful of "tree-huggers."

After a prompt visit from officials, he is now mulling over whether to proceed with the original plan, suggesting that the 1,000-pound (453-kilogram) cows will probably be sold to individuals who will have to take them to a licensed butcher to be cut and wrapped.

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