For the next six weeks, nonresident trophy hunters will visit Maine to shoot a fed bear.

Bear baiting guides have been baiting bears with grease and doughnuts in Maine’s forestlands for 30 days at more than 7,000 locations. Nearly all of the bait sites are within sight of a well-traveled gravel road adjacent to a tree stand.

Here is how one Maine bear guide describes baiting bear on his Web site.

“Our bait system is designed to attract bears to the area, create competition for the site, and to train bears for the arrival of the bait and you. We begin baiting approximately one month prior to the opening of the bear season. We use a specific baiting routine to program their feeding habits earlier in the day, by creating competition. Baiting bears is much like training your dog. Since animals learn by repetition, we are conditioning them to the sound of our trucks, human scent, and the noise we make while placing the bait. The bears soon associate this routine with the arrival of food; much like Pavlov’s dog and the ringing of the bell. This helps change bears daily pattern, to feed in that “specific” area and earlier in the day as other bears find the food source.”

Here is a question I have for the readers. Would you call it hunting if I fed my dog for 30 days and then back shot him while he innocently ate from his dish?

Bill Randall, Winthrop