When I opened the newspaper recently, I couldn’t help thinking about the “bear in your backyard” news that has been published lately around the state when I read about the annual running of the bulls in Pamplona, Spain.

The bear referendum opponents constantly promote their fear agenda campaign about bears eating the kids in the backyard but are silent on the bulls.

What a laugh when you consider the fact that no Maine wild bear in recent memory has sent anyone to the hospital and yet, in just the last four days of the Spanish bull run, 28 people have been injured and taken to the hospital. What’s even funnier is that these people are willful participants in this absurdity. I remember reading about a 22-year-old American who was killed by one of the bulls in 1995.

Has anyone here is Maine thought about having an Augusta bear run? Just think of its financial and sporting potential with a little promotion and publicity.

The fear-agenda folks, who might be willful participants in this first annual event, might even be able to say that a bear in Maine had harmed a human being and sent one or two of them to the hospital.

The net benefit is that they could stop promoting their fear campaign and start speaking the truth.

And then I would support them and the bears in this “fair chase.”

Bill Randall, Hunters for Fair Bear Hunting, Winthrop

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