AUGUSTA – Recruiting and fund-raising is under way for a new propaganda war, right here in Maine.

Hundreds of thousands of dollars are allocated to attack Maine’s notions of bear hunting. That much or more is set aside to defend them.

Battle lines were drawn last summer when Maine Friends of Animals and the Humane Society of the United States formed a political action committee: Maine Citizens for Fair Bear Hunting.

Last summer and fall, the committee began circulating petitions for a statewide citizens initiative seeking to ban hunting of bear with bait, hounds and traps.

Meanwhile, the 15,000-member Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine has been gathering donations as it prepares to fight the ban language.

Both sides are ready for a 10-month campaign that may or may not end in November 2004, when voters tackle the referendum. It asks, “Do you want to make it a crime to hunt bears with bait, traps, or dogs, except to protect property, public safety, or for research?”

According to Maine Citizens for Fair Bear Hunting, the statewide initiative was launched to halt the trophy hunting of bears with bait or dogs, and to halt the trapping of bears with leg-hold traps.

“These particularly cruel and unsporting hunting and trapping practices are widely opposed by the people of Maine, but continue because of the influence of a small number of powerful hunting guides and outfitters, who make tens of thousands of dollars every year by making bear killing fast and easy for their fee-paying clients from other states,” the group claims on their Web site.

They also claim to have gotten a record 103,251 signatures at the polls to force the referendum. Listed towns include Caribou (785 signatures), Rumford (439), Old Orchard Beach (1,260), and more than 1,000 from Brunswick.

But the signatures mean little to bear-hunting ban opponent George Smith, executive director of Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine.

“To help put their petition success in perspective, I want you to know that the pro-casino initiative also collected 100,000 signatures in 2002 for their 2003 initiative, which subsequently went down to defeat by a 2-to-1 margin,” Smith said on the Alliance Web site.

“It’s also important to note that the pro-casino side spent over $10 million on their losing campaign. The winning campaign cost about $2.5 million,” he added.

Throughout Maine and across the nation, sportsmen have been stepping up to stop the attack by national animal rights groups on hunting and trapping in Maine, Smith claims.

As of Jan. 20, the Maine Citizens group seeking the ban had raised $226,793, according to Smith.

Meanwhile, the sportsmen’s campaign to defend bear hunting and trapping in Maine had raised $242,333.

A direct-mail appeal to 103,000 hunter households, including both residents and nonresidents, raised $26,522 from 766 households early on.

Other Maine and national sportsmen’s organizations have promised more than $100,000.

“Responses to these mailings and our grassroots fund-raising success indicate strong support for our cause amongst the Maine community of sportsmen,” Smith added.

They’ve also got Gov. John Baldacci’s support.

Baldacci cited the out-of-state forces trying to tell Maine how to manage its wildlife as one of his principal objections in December at the Ninth Annual Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine Sportsman’s Congress.

Other reasons: jobs and economics.

The jobs provided by bear hunting are important to the communities in parts of the state where there isn’t as much economic activity “as we would like to see,” he said.

tkarkos@sunjournal.com

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