Accident de chasse en Ontario/femme tuée

[Animal 0]

The Globe and Mail (9 nov. 2006)

Woman's death could spur review of hunting rules

Toronto -- A woman's shooting death may force Simcoe County to revisit the
controversial issue of hunting regulations just months after concluding
public consultation on the issue.

Marianne Schmid, 67, was fatally shot Monday while walking in a forest. A
60-year-old man has been charged with criminal negligence causing death and
careless use of a firearm in connection with the shooting. Hunting season in
the area began Monday.

Public consultations held this summer resulted in a draft plan to ban
hunting in certain areas by the beginning of next year because they are too
close to residential areas, said county communication manager Allan
Greenwood. Staff

[Animal 0]

Hunters kill woman afraid of hunters


From Melissa Tkachyk, WSPA, who had it bounced:

This woman hiked out into danger not knowing that the deer hunting season
had begun in her community. If you want to contact the MNR and tell them
that they should be warning people about their safety during deer hunting
season, contact their Communications Advisor, Ginette Albert. People should
be well informed of where hunting is taking place and should be advised not
to go in these areas. This includes the more than 400 provincial parks and
conservation reserves that are open to hunting. - there's ample evidence
that wearing bright colours won't protect you from being a hunter's target.

Ginette Albert
Senior Adviser, Communications
Minister of Natural Resources' Office


Toronto Star
Wary hiker killed in woods
Criminal negligence charge laid
Forest near Tottenham a favourite spot
Nov. 8, 2006. 07:30 AM
JIM WILKES
STAFF REPORTER

Marianne Schmid loved to walk the leafy paths of the lush public forest near
her home west of Tottenham.

But the 67-year-old hiker never made the daily trek during hunting season,
her family says, because she was wary of hunters shooting at deer or wild
turkeys that amble through the pines a 45-minute drive north of Toronto.

Schmid didn't know hunting season had begun on Monday, and, despite wearing
a red sweater and jeans, was shot dead by a hunter who thought she was wild
game wandering the woods that afternoon.

Her husband, Walter, who was worried when she didn't return home, took his
2-year-old grandson for a ride to find her and ended up identifying her body
in the back of an ambulance by the side of the road.

Police last night charged a Keswick man with criminal negligence causing
death in the incident.

"She was my everything," Schmid said yesterday in the stone and wood home he
and Marianne built themselves in the late 1960s, even as she was pregnant
with son Toby, now 36.

"It's stupidity," he said.

"We'll never - never - recover what was destroyed by that one shot."

Schmid said his wife had phoned the OPP just last week, "because she had a
scare with someone shooting" in the forest.

He said she stopped walking in the forest when hunting season began each
autumn. But because the dates of the season change from year to year, they
didn't realize it began on Monday.

He said she had encountered bow hunters earlier this fall, when their
hunting season was in full swing.

"But they shoot at closer range, so they can see their targets more
clearly."

Officers from the Nottawasaga detachment of Ontario Provincial Police were
called to the Simcoe Regional Forest late Monday afternoon to answer a call
about a woman who was injured. They found Schmid dead from a single gunshot
wound to the abdomen, deep in the forest off the 2nd Concession of
Adjala-Tosorontio Township, north of Highway 9, a few kilometres east of
Mono Mills.

"I keep hearing that this was a tragic hunting accident," said Schmid's son,
Toby. "This wasn't an accident.

"A tree falling on her would be an accident. I thought the cardinal rule for
responsible hunters was that you positively identify your target before you
pull the trigger."

Walter agreed.

"We don't understand how anybody could confuse her with a deer," he said,
standing on the second floor of the family home, at the end of a long
driveway that winds through a woodlot of pine, cedar and fir on the 3rd
Concession.

"We're not against hunting, but this is not a hunting accident."

Walter came to Canada from Germany in 1957 and Marianne followed the next
year, even though she was too young to emigrate alone under German law.

"She snuck away to Canada to marry me," he said, summoning a small smile.
"We built this house together. She cut the stone herself and carried it up a
ladder when she was pregnant to build the chimney.

"We still had big plans, very big plans. Everything we did was because of
her."

Schmid said his wife drove to the forest each day for a hike along the path
that loops through the trees. He took a video of her playing in the fallen
leaves with 2-year-old grandson Max just moments before she put the
youngster down for a nap and headed off for her walk on Monday.

"She was wearing a red turtleneck sweater - red of all colours," Toby said.
"She left her coat behind because it was such a nice day.

"And they make it mandatory for hunters to wear orange vests."

Walter said his wife was "a real jock."

"I couldn't keep up with her," he said

Toby said his mother was an avid scuba diver, hiker, skier, kayaker and
windsurfer.

"She could leave young punks behind on the water - myself included," he
said.

The last fatal hunting incident in Ontario was in December 2004, when a
62-year-old hunter shot two men as they set up decoys near Kohler, outside
Hamilton.

The hunter apparently mistook them for ducks, despite the bright orange hat
and coats they wore, required under Ontario law.

Hunting accidents in Ontario have dramatically declined over the years -
there were just two in the province last year and neither was deadly.

But Robert Pye, spokesperson for the Ontario Federation of Anglers and
Hunters, said the fatal shooting is "deeply disturbing ... it's just a
shocking incident."

"Hunters in Ontario are required to have a minimum of 20 hours of firearms
and hunter education safety training and over a million people have gone
through the training (in the past 50 years)," Pye said.

"That's why we are so shocked, because hunting has enjoyed an incredible
safety track record, particularly the last 10 years or so. The safety record
for hunters has been near flawless for the last three or four years."

A Ministry of Natural Resources official noted the deer hunt in the area
where Schmid was shot is designated a so-called "controlled hunt" where
hunters can only use shotguns, firing slugs rather than pellets, or black
powder weapons whose projectiles don't travel as far as a bullet fired from
a high-power hunting rifle.

Frederick Paul Thomas, 60, of Keswick, faces charges of criminal negligence
causing death and careless use of a firearm. He is to appear in Bradford
court Dec. 21.

FILES FROM RICHARD BRENNAN AND VICTORIA KENT
____________________________________________________

Barry Kent MacKay
Canadian Representative
Animal Protection Institute
www.api4animals.org