OFFENCES CONNECTED WITH TRAPPING IN TWO PERIODS 



Trap without a licence 

 AH other fur offences 



In the period 1955-60, an average of only 14 convictions were registered 

 each year, at a time when there were 9,854 trappers licensed to participate in 

 the fur harvest. In the earlier period, there was an average of 134 convictions a 

 year for fur offences, but this was reduced to 50 in an average year after 1955. 

 Even more significant, is the fact that during the period from 1935 to 1939, fur 

 offences comprised about 17 percent of the total offences, but this was reduced 

 to a little over 2 percent during the period 1955 to 1960. 



The application of a zoning system in 1947, which covered all of the Crown 

 lands of Ontario, together with an intensification of a management system in 

 which trappers fully participated, is believed to be the main reason for a reduction 

 in fur offences. 



The present enforcement staff of 222 regular conservation officers can do 

 little more than sample the population of sportsmen. The results of this, indicated 

 by the number of convictions each year since 1955, are as follows: 



1955-56 2,895 Convictions 



1956-57 2,704 



1957-58 2,993 



1958-59 2,525 



1959-60 2,228 



1960-61 2,207 



1961-62 2,049 



1962-63 2,045 



Field observations suggest that slightly more than 1 5 percent of the violations 

 which actually occur result in prosecutions and convictions. The ideal might be to 

 eliminate violations, but since this is obviously impossible, it is desirable to 

 enunciate standards which would indicate a suitable level of law enforcement 

 achievement. Actions which clearly demonstrate utter contempt for the law, and 

 thus for the policies of society, must clearly be dealt with decisively, since such 

 attitudes may seriously jeopardize the possibility of achieving the objectives of 

 management. 



With decreasing numbers of convictions during the last eight years, it would 

 be pleasant to conclude that at last our public relations and education program 

 was achieving the desired results. This conclusion would not take account of 

 changes in the laws which have eliminated certain fishing offences, increasing 

 participation by conservation officers in the biological phases of a growing manage- 

 ment program, or the introduction of a mandatory forty-hour work week, without 

 a corresponding increase in field staff. Nor would it take account of the fact that 

 in the area most affected by changes in the fishery regulations, a sharp decline 

 in numbers of convictions was soon followed by an upswing, as officers concen- 

 trated on other fishery violations. 



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