I am adamantly in favor of voting yes on the bear baiting question.

Bear baiting is not a long hunting tradition in Maine. It has only been a practice for about the last 20 years.

Rather than the small, family businesses we are hearing about, it is mostly large bear hunting businesses in northern Maine who have captured thousands of acres for their own use. The average bear hunter is not even able to hunt those lands. There is a long waiting list for any bear hunter who wants to hunt without paying big money up front to these guides.

It is fact that in the states that have banned unethical hunting, the hunting licenses have increased, and they are taking more bear than before. Don’t let the fear mongers convince you that we will be surrounded by nuisance bears. We really don’t know if the bear count will go up or not. Remember: Bears are self-regulating, and without all the extra feed in the fall, the numbers may naturally go down. And in the end, the bill does have provisions for handling nuisance bears.

Finally, I am a hunter. I feel that hunting needs to remain ethical for the rest of society to accept us. It is, after all, our fellow voters who will, in the end, decide how much hunting will happen in the future. Keep it ethical, fair and clean and we’ll have many good hunting years to come.

Sylvia Ouellette, Mount Vernon

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