The Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife claims that bear complaints are low and holding steady in Maine, while the bear populations and bear complaints in Washington, Oregon and Colorado ”“ which passed referendums between 1992 and 1996, banning hounding, baiting, and trapping ”“ “have constrained the bear manager’s ability to control the number of bears and the damage that a larger bear population causes to personal property, timber and agriculture.”
Yet, if you talk to wildlife officials in these other states, bear complaints are holding steady and the bear populations are stable. Doug Cottam, biologist with the Oregon Department of Fish and Game, was quoted in an article entitled “Black Bear Politics” by Brian Kevin, published in the August 2014 edition of Down East Magazine as saying, “If you know what you’re looking for and where to go, you can hunt bears effectively without bait or hounds.”
Jerry Apker, carnivore biologist with the Colorado Department of Parks and Wildlife, was quoted in the same article as saying, “People who sit there and point to all these conflicts as a consequence of Colorado’s vote. That’s just totally untrue.”
Donny Martorello, carnivore, furbearer and special species section manager with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, reports stable bear populations and no increased complaints in the State of Washington.
Only the three most populated states in the nation ”“ Massachusetts, New Jersey and New York ”“ have reported an increased number of bear complaints in recent years due to their high human population to bear ratio and diminishing habitat in each state.
A terrible tragedy was reported by Fox News at www.foxnews.com on Sept. 23: “New Jersey wildlife officials believe that a black bear in search of food killed a Rutgers University senior who was hiking with four friends over the weekend.”
In response to news of the fatal attack by a black bear in New Jersey, Katie Hansberry, campaign director of Mainers for Fair Bear Hunting, stated, “This is a tragic incident and public safety is one of the reasons that we are doing this important work. As you know, baiting habituates bears to human food sources, increasing the likelihood of conflicts as they lose their wariness of people and seek out the junk food they have become accustomed to. Like Maine, New Jersey allows baiting and the dumping of junk food into the woods, which conditions bears to human foods and smells and makes encounters more likely.”
According to the Bear Science Report at www.fairbearhunt.com/science, “In 1975, the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife estimated that the state’s bear population numbered 8,500 bears and in 2010, it increased to 30,000. Between 1975 and 2010, the bear population increased by more than 250 percent. Maine wildlife officials estimate that the current bear population is as high as 36,000 individuals.”
Daryl DeJoy, executive director of the Wildlife Alliance of Maine, explains, “Peer-reviewed published studies show that female bears with access to high-energy food during fall months have demonstrated weight gains and increased reproductive success (Rogers 1976, Elowe 1987). Weight is associated with differences in reproductive performance among populations (Stringham 1990). Malnourished black bear females do not successfully reproduce. Their offspring are absorbed in utero, are stillborn, or starve from a lack of milk. What is allowing the bear population to increase when it should be holding itself at a more natural, lower rate due to the loss of large quantities of beechnut trees from beech bark disease in Northern Maine? The answer is millions of pounds of bait.”
The IFW rules state, “Bait may not be used to hunt or trap a black bear unless the bait is placed more than 500 yards (just over a third of a mile) from an occupied dwelling, unless written permission is granted by the owner or leasee.”
There is fierce opposition to banning baiting as Brian Kevin of Down East Magazine in the August 2014 issue explains, “The overwhelming majority of bears killed in Maine ”“ 81 percent in 2012 ”“ are shot by hunters over bait. Baited hunts, moreover, are the lifeblood of Maine’s commercial bear guiding industry. Paid guides led nearly 2,100 clients on bear hunts last fall, of which more than 1,700 hunted over bait.”
The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine at reports “high-fat diets increase the amount of estrogens, the female sex hormones, in the blood.”
Since female bears have the same primary sex hormone, estradiol, as do human females, perhaps the same is true in female bears as well with the high-fat, unhealthy junk food of baiting increasing their weight, fertility and reproductive rates just before they go into hibernation.
There is no prohibition in Maine against shooting female bears and/or their cubs while they are eating bait, or female deer with fawns during hunting season. Bait sites attract many non-targeted animals, such as raccoons, skunks and foxes (all rabies vector species) some of whom may fight with each other at the site and spread the rabies virus.
Most people feel profound twinges of sympathy while watching YouTube videos, such as Join Mainers for Fair Bear Hunting Today, of bears and other non-targeted animals caught in ever-tightening snare traps. These “humane” snare traps are only checked every 24 hours by law. The trapping of bears is prohibited in every state, except Maine.
— Val Philbrick works in the production department of the Journal Tribune as a pre-press person. She is a member of PETA and the Humane Society of the United States.
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