Pop star Miley Cyrus joins campaign to protect B.C.’s grizzly bears

DENNY ISLAND, B.C. — Pop star Miley Cyrus has added some high-profile clout to the latest awareness campaign launched by a British Columbia-based environmental group seeking a total ban on grizzly hunting across the province.

Pacific Wild has released an online video featuring Cyrus performing a haunting rendition of Teddy Bears’ Picnic.

As she sings, the camera pans across majestic scenery devoid of animals except for a leaping salmon and sounds of bird song.

Pacific Wild executive director Ian McAllister says the online campaign was prompted by the B.C. government’s announcement of an impending ban on bear trophy hunting, while still permitting bear hunting for food.

The ban is due to take effect next year, but McAllister says there’s concern that hunters will circumvent it by removing a small amount of the meat and claiming the entire kill, including the head and pelt, as food.

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This is the second foray Cyrus has made into animal welfare in B.C. She visited the province in 2015 and spoke out against a planned wolf cull aimed at protecting endangered caribou.

McAllister is pleased at the support from the singer and is hoping it will raise awareness for the push to implement a B.C.-wide ban on grizzly hunting. 

“Grizzly bears occupy just 2 per cent of their former range in the lower 48 states today. They are also not a necessary or ethical food source,” McAllister says.

Pacific Wild says grizzlies are the second-slowest reproducing land mammal in North America and are threatened throughout much of their natural range.

The Canadian Press