18 DEPARTMENT OF GAME AND FISHERIES No. 9 (1941) 



ENFORCEMENT SERVICE 



To protect the resources which make hunting and fishing possible it is neces- 

 sary to maintain a large number of law enforcement officers. To curb game law 

 violators is just as essential as restocking our lakes and streams, and the pity is that 

 it should be necessary. The regulations are restrictive only as necessity demands, 

 while the limits are generous enough to satisfy all reasonable requirements. That 

 being so there appears to be little reason for violations, and yet the toll of destruction 

 by illegal means is too high to lightly pass over. 



It will be obvious to the sportsman who is concerned with the future of his 

 sport that waste and extravagance are unnecessary evils which tax to the limit the 

 reproductive capacity of our wild life, aided by artificial propagation, to maintain a 

 normal supply to meet what, after all, is an abnormal demand. In order that our fish 

 and game resources may be wisely used for the benefit of the greatest number, pro- 

 tective measures, and protective officers to enforce these regulations are necessary, 

 but these can only function effectively when backed by the co-operation of the sports- 

 man and the weight of public opinion. 



This enforcement service is provided by a staff of some ninety regular overseers, 

 whose services are augmented by the co-operation of members of the Ontario Pro- 

 vincial Police Force, while during the critical spring spawning period and in the fall 

 hunting season the services of sixty-two seasonal employees were retained to provide 

 additional patrol in the more important spawning and hunting areas. 



Appointments as Deputy Game and Fisheries Wardens were provided to more 

 than nineteen hundred sportsmen who interest themselves in providing whatever 

 assistance it is possible for them to render in securing effective observance of the 

 various provisions of the Game and Fisheries Act and Regulations in the areas in which 

 they reside and visit for recreational purposes, and the value of this co-operation 

 in controlling and preventing the abuse of sporting privileges it is difficult to estimate. 



During 1939-40 there were some 1,779 cases in which offenders were appre- 

 hended by the various enforcement officers and in which cases various articles of 

 fishing, hunting and trapping equipment, game, fish and the pelts of lur-bearing 

 animals were seized at the time of apprehension. Reference to the various reports 

 of seizure submitted to the Department by the officers concerned indicates that such 

 seizures were made by Game and Fisheries Overseers in 1,578 cases, by Deputy Game 

 and Fisheries Wardens in 75 cases, by members of the Ontario Provincial Police force 

 in 32 cases, while in the remaining 94 cases the seizures were undertaken by co- 

 operative action among Overseers, Deputy Game Wardens and Provincial Police. 



Summarized the articles confiscated are as follows: — 



Live animals in 11 cases 



Birds, game animals and meat in 189 cases 



Firearms and ammunition in 651 cases 



Fish in 235 cases 



Nets and Fishing equipment in 257 cases 



Fishing tackle (angling) in 130 cases 



Pelts and Hides in 346 cases 



Traps and Trapping equipment in 179 cases 



Water Craft in 28 cases 



Motor Vehicles in 9 cases 



Lights in 26 cases 



Spears in 71 cases 



Miscellaneous articles in 60 cases 



