Teddy Roosevelt wrote in his book, “Hunting the Grisly and Other Sketches” (free download for your Kindle) that hunting black bears offered, “much excitement, and occasionally a slight spice of danger….” In addition he stated that it was very difficult to hunt black bears by implementing only the “stalking” method of hunting. (I’ve written about the “spot and stalk” methods, here, here, here, here, here.)
The Humane Society of the United States and the Wildlife Alliance of Maine are attempting a citizen’s initiate in the fall of 2014 to ban all forms of hunting and trapping black bears in Maine with the exception of the so-called “spot and stalk” method. The ignorant masses proposing such a ban claim there is no need nor scientific substantiation to continue the current hunting and trapping methods. They fail miserably to understand responsible wildlife management while immersed in their emotional nonsense of animal and predator worship, all the while at the expense of other wildlife due to forced abandonment of proven scientific wildlife management.
Black bear populations in Maine cannot be responsibly controlled by removing all ability of the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife (MDIFW) to employ the tools necessary to manage for healthy bear numbers and provide a reasonable amount of public safety.
Current Maine bear populations are at record numbers. Maine voters need to make sure that MDIFW has the tools needed to do the job they are given to do. Please oppose any attempt by environmentalists and animal rights groups to ban proven methods as can be found in the long history of the North American Model of Wildlife Management.
