From an article found on the MPBN website:
“To be honest, there’s no way we can harvest enough bears without these tools,” Cross says.[Randy Cross, Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife(MDIFW) bear biologist. Cross was referencing the upcoming referendum that, if successful, would strip the MDIFW of any tools needed to properly manage a healthy black bear population.
Darryl DeJoy, who runs the Wildlife Alliance of Maine(WAM), says: “I would argue that we have created an artificial bear feeding season, August and September, where in years of low mast crops and other bear food, the bears are supplemented with this highly unhealthy diet of literally millions of pounds of junk food.”
What we have here is this. For at least 39 years, the MDIFW has conducted scientific bear studies. Most people would agree that Maine’s bear study and management program is the best there is. Some might even argue the best worldwide. We know that Maine is the envy of many states with black bears and I’m sure those states rely on findings from the Maine studies to assist them in their bear management programs.
On the flip side of this, we have the Humane Society of the United States(HSUS), known anti hunting, anti human people, and a clone of which would be Darryl DeJoy. Like an echo chamber they repeat their rhetoric about supplemental feeding programs creating an “unhealthy diet” and “millions of pounds”, all of which is creating a population increase of black bears in the state.
Where is the proof? Where are the scientific studies (real science not “new science scientism) to support this claim? What does HSUS and the WAM have to support their claims? The answer is none and therefore nothing they say or offer can be considered by anyone with a brain as useful information.
IF HSUS and WAM really believe in what they are saying and their claims to be concerned about the health and “inhumane” treatment of black bears is so damned important to them, then why haven’t they produced real science to prove their claim? Put their money where their fat mouths are?
So, Maine people need to decide. Should they listen to those biologists and bear management people at MDIFW with a program of 39 years of bear studies, or a bunch of radical human haters with nothing but rhetoric to support their money-making con game?
