Ethics in Photography-- Some bad apples are tainting the water for all of us!

I understand that people come to my blog to see wildlife shots and to perhaps even read about the trips. I am going to take a little space here to discuss a topic near and dear to my heart and that has surfaced in Calgary and other areas regarding wildlife photography ethics. It initially started with local discussions here in Calgary surrounding the ethics of "baiting" owls in order to "get the shot".  The next incident was something on the Nikonians website regarding a photographer who had a very personal interaction with a young bull elk in a park down in the US.
http://www.nikonians.org/forums/dcboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=161&topic_id=166855&mesg_id=166855&page=
If you don't want to investigate the thread, the summary is as follows: A photographer did nothing to prevent the encounter from happening and as a result the elk was destroyed. The elk had become human-habituated to the point that it had become dangerous to people. The habituation occurred because people fed the elk repeatedly. That is what happens when unthinking humans want to get better photos. They feed the animals to attract them, then other concerned humans have to destroy the animals for the safety of the rest of the humans.  It doesn't exactly seem fair to the animals.
I do not condone baiting.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/banff-wolves-baited-with-turkey-by-suspected-wildlife-paparazzi-1.2489021
So now we have other Photogs who are trying to get shots of wolves in a national park by illegally baiting wolves with cooked turkey.
I recently added a link to the blog that outlines the ethics that I adhere to. I recently visited the Leslie Street Spit in Toronto. Here are the guidelines that the Tommy Thompson Park requests visitors adhere to in regard to owl sightings.

 

These are some of the reasons that I am so vague in identifying where we find various animals and birds on the blog. Please, if you see anyone misbehaving by baiting animals, talk to them and educate them on the effects they are having on the animals and what the ultimate cost to the animal will be. 

Turbo