Tempting bears with bait flies in face of ‘fair chase’ hunting

When I read the article, “Bear tracks in New Jersey” (Dec. 28), it piqued my interest. Part of that pique was because I am a former bear-baiting guide.

Additionally, I also know that New Jersey’s bear problem was caused by no hunting of bears for 33 years and exacerbated by people feeding wild bears as though they were pet bears. I also know the problem was taken care of with a six-day hunting season without hunters using traps, bait or hound dogs to kill 10 percent (328 bear) of New Jersey’s bear population. But before getting into the pros and cons of bear baiting, let me make one thing clear that also will provide, in part, a premise and add to the validity of the succeeding comments.

Bears do not need to be managed with the use of bait, traps and hounds. Inland Fisheries and Wildlife says other management tools are available that include extending the season and increasing the bag limits. Additionally, bears are one of the most self-regulating, large animals in the world. Bears, unlike most other creatures, are not the prey of any other specie. Perhaps that’s the reason for Mother Nature’s built-in regulator.

Black bears, at least the Maine variety, manage themselves well in many ways. They have a low reproductive rate of about 15 percent. The females don’t normally breed until they are four years old and breed only every other year. Compared with most other animals, their litter size is small, averaging two cubs, which means the average female produces only a dozen or so offspring in her lifetime. There are other subtle controlling factors as well, but these are the main ones.

Bounties on bears were eliminated in 1957. For nearly 20 years after the elimination of bear bounties, there was little interest in hunting bears. People occasionally shot them on the dumps in rural Maine, just as one might shoot a rat. There was simply no reason during this period for anyone to go bear hunting, for most people found their flesh unpalatable, as most people still do today. There were, however, a few hunters who enjoyed chasing a bear with a pack of hounds. This was back in the days when it was a sporting chase, quite unlike the bear hunts of today, with tracking collars that negate most of the “fair chase” concept of hunting.

So how did we go from the day of trapping the bear for the bounty to a very limited interest in bear hunting to the present-day, vigorous activity? The answer is found in the profits made by those who cater to nonresident hunters.

Students of economics know how well entrepreneurs can and do justify their actions when they come to making profits. The “fair chase” concept of hunting has been cast aside for the ease of making the quick buck. The attributes necessary for a successful bear hunt require little skill. All that’s required, by those who call themselves “bear guides,” are the ability and means to transport a bait bucket, and a nonresident person who has purchased a hunting license but is not necessarily a hunter.

Why do our wildlife managers sanction this sucker-type hunting? They too, in their own way, are entrepreneurs, for they need funds for their management coffers. Not only do they get the benefits of the $86 nonresident license fee, but they also charge the nonresident an additional $65 for a required bear stamp.

What the government managers and commercial bear baiters fail to tell the public is that there are successful ways to harvest bears without the use of bait.

One very successful way is by using anise and placing it in natural food areas where bear tend to congregate during the early fall. Learning how to hunt bear, using one’s skills as a hunter and a little patience, will produce results nearly equal to that of bait hunting. A side benefit is the reward one receives feeling the heightened elation of success of a real hunter, versus one of shooting a pig in a barrel.

It is fair and reasonable to say that baiting bear has no future. Bear baiting and all its physical and social problems will be the demise of hunting and the hunter in the near future.

Hunters are being lead astray by groups that suggest hunters should band together, support each other and be concerned about the Humane Society of the United States. The Humane Society is not opposed to “fair chase” hunting, for they too recognize the value and necessity of hunting as a wildlife management tool.

The activity of bear baiting has not been done away with legislatively. Worse than that, not a single bear bill of any kind has been allowed out of the 13-member IF&W Committee for open discussion since 1979 and that’s why the voice of the people should be permitted speak loud and clear at the ballot box. The nonhunting public of the future will not support the shooting of a pig in a barrel.

I believe we ought to hunt bear during the months of October and November in the same “fair chase” manner that we hunt deer and other wildlife. Every resident in Maine, including sportsmen, will be the benefactor if we do.

Bill Randall is a former hunter, Maine guide, bear baiter and bear trapper who lives in Winthrop.

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