Wildlife Photography ©Jim Robertson, 2013. All Rights Reserved
Almost 10 years after failing to abolish baiting and other methods, animal-welfare activists want to revisit the debate: Are these cruel or are they viable wildlife management tools?
By Deirdre Fleming dfleming@mainetoday.com Staff Writer
Bear hunters in Maine again find themselves in the sights of animal-welfare advocates who contend that some of their practices are inhumane.
Less than 10 years after Maine residents voted down a divisive referendum effort to abolish the use of bear hunting with bait, dogs and traps, the debate has re-emerged.
As hunters prepare for the first day of bear season Monday, sportsmen, politicians and animal-rights advocates are gearing up for a renewal of the referendum battle that spiked passions on both sides in 2004.
Bear-baiting involves placing food in the same location repeatedly for about a month before the season opens in hopes a bear will get in the habit of visiting the site regularly. Hunters also use dogs wearing radio collars to force a bear up a tree and keep it there until the hunter tracks it down electronically. Traps such as wire foothold snares are also used to hunt bears.
Supporters of banning the practices say they are cruel and give hunters an unfair advantage.
Opponents argue that the practices are vital to keeping the state’s bear population in check. If they are banned, the population will explode, and conflicts between bears and people will become commonplace, even in developed areas, they say.
Maine has one of the largest black bear populations in the lower 48 states, according to the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, and is the only state to allow all three controversial practices.
A coalition led by the Maine chapter of the Humane Society of the United States, called Mainers For Fair Bear Hunting, is behind the ballot initiative. It aims to collect as many as 80,000 signatures next month to get a referendum question on the 2014 ballot. The Secretary of State’s Office is still drafting language on the referendum question.
In 2004, voters rejected the referendum question seeking a ban on the three hunting practices by a margin of 53 percent to 47 percent. Each side spent more than $1 million on the campaign.
Those backing a ban on the practices said last week they think they’ll win this time.
“This is a last resort (after trying several times without success in the Legislature). But with the additional 10 years of experience, we’re confident we can win on the ballot,” said Katie Hansberry, director of the Maine chapter of the Humane Society.
Maine hunters expected the issue to resurface, and that it would involve another expensive ballot fight.
“I think we knew they’d be back,” said David Trahan, director of the Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine. “(The Humane Society is) a nationwide group. And (it) raises a lot of money.”
MAINE A FOCAL POINT
Proponents say the three controversial bear-hunting methods give hunters an unfair advantage and that trapping or shooting a bear over bait is inherently cruel.
Maine is a focal point in the debate over bear-hunting practices because it is the only state where all three are allowed.
Robert Fisk, director of the Maine Friends of Animals, which led the 2004 effort to ban the hunting practices, said the public is more familiar with the issues today, and that gives ban supporters an advantage.
“I believe we have an excellent chance of winning this time. The opposition’s alarmist strategies and scare tactics that were prevalent in 2004 can be exposed this time around. People are much more aware of animal protection issues than they were 10 years ago,” Fisk said.
Proponents say they have data and experiences from other states where the Humane Society successfully banned the use of these bear hunting methods, and that much of the Maine public was educated on the issue in 2004.
Exposing the Big Game 
Management rationale: We, Maine hunters, need to use radio collared dogs to chase and tree bears, leg snares to catch and hold them until we can get there and shoot them. We have to do this to manage bears so that the population will not get out of control. In how many instances do we hear this rationale for “sports” killing, especially against predators? How often has non-management, let the animal ecology manage itself (see what happens)? Yellowstone wolves and bears manage themselves. Might this be true if tried outside the parks? This is the basis of hunters’ argument that they are true environmentalists because they manage animal populations. This central idea of wildlife agency and hunters’ argument needs challenging. Is it true that bears and lions and wolves and other critters will over-populate and get out of control? Should we be thanking hunters for their sportsmen ethic of any chase is fair chase and necessary killing?
How about this idea? Abolish hunting of predators and maybe all animals and see what happens. Then, if problems arise, come up with protocols for dealing with the issues with preferences for nonlethal control or management, lethal only if necessary mainly for chronic offenders for which there seems to be no other option. Nature had millennium to work out wildlife ecology, predator prey balance and the give and take and waxing and waning of populations. Then came man-management, the wildlife agencies and their management by hunting with little question as to the necessity.
I live in Maine. This is straight out demographics. Maine has more elderly than nearly anywhere else and since they are retired, they have the time to vote and enjoy seeing what is left of their friends at the polls. The hunting guides come out and vote because they have the time. Many of the elderly here retired from living in the cities surrounding Boston and are frightened of bears. And then there are the trappers, who can’t hold down a real job because everyone who is fairly normal thinks trappers are more dangerous than bears. Most working people commute long distances to work, some not arriving home until after the polls close. And the State makes money on it so the bean counters are happy.
If you want to stop this, I know how. The politicians are worthless without a good reputation. If the suspecttheir reputations are going down the toilet, they will act responsibly. Remember, we are talking about little black bears. They rarely bother anyone. I know bikers bigger than these bears. 🙂 I have had personal bear encounters whilst blueberry picking. I haven’t even had to ever use bear mace, I don’t need it, they and I just go our separate ways.
So if you live in Maine, here is what to do…
Dear ( your rep’s name, and your Gov. Paul LePage)
I am (your name), I am a registered voter in the town of ( your town). I strongly support animal rights, to include Maine’s beautiful Black Bears as do many of my friends. We do vote, and much of the weight of our decisions are based on our opinions of how animals are treated in Maine. Good sir/madam, your reputation as a wonderful human being and an asset to our fine State is at a tipping point as this is a critical issue to animal lovers in Maine and to tourists and potential new business in the State. No tourist from away wants their children’s vacation in Maine to include the sight of a bear, similar to their own teddy bear, clutched in their arms every night, the real bear bring a bloody corpse in the back of some trophy hunter’s vehicle, leaking blood onto the pavement of a general store or rest stop. This is not a rare sight, as you well know! Tourists will boycott Maine! News has gone out around the world how we in Maine allow barbaric practices of hunting bears, here. It is bad for bears, children and tourism and the State of Maine and those of us who represent and reside here. I implore you to save the global reputation of our State. Treat people and animals as you would want to be treated yourself. We need to be an important part of the global economy. We can’t do that if we are viewed as backward, mean and a dangerous place over what a few bad apples do to bears and other animals. We need to press ahead into the future in an ethical way. You can lead us on that path or get left behind like so much rusty old farm impliments. The baby boomers who grew up with ethics, watching Lassie and reading Call of the Wild are retiring now. They will be coming to Maine as an escape from Urban America’s problems. To them it is paradise. Lead the way and make it so!
Respectfully,
Sign your name. Best if you sign it with a pen and snail mail it with “personal” marked on the envelope.
Or something like that… 🙂
Sorry for the typos, my tablet froze up before I could fix them. Hope I help folk get some talking points together.
thank you, melody! what a great letter. I wish I lived in maine just so I could send the letter.
Thanks, Beth!
You don’t have to live in Maine. The State is highly dependent on tourist dollars. The lack of tourism could destroy a politician’s reputation if linked to some barbaric policy decision which caused bear hunting to flurish unabated, such as it is now.
Instead of starting with your state residency, start with why you would love to vacation in the State of Maine, and maybe say you are spending whole summers and maybe fall here? You are impressed with the universities, and their affordability for the quality of education received. However you are concerned with the State politicians allowing hunting practices from the dark ages to be acted out with their results of animals, especially bears, dying a horrible death of being hounded, shot over bait or crushed in agony in traps. There is no fair chase for bears. And regardless of ESA protections, wolves usually somebody’s pet who got lost, can end up shot to death while getting a drink of water out of the river.
Say you’d rather not have your family exposed to animals, dripping blood out of the back of a pick-up truck. Tell them that you’d rather these ancient practices stop now so that you feel safe bringing your family to Maine. Otherwise, you may have to take your tourist dollars to someplace like Cape Cod or Martha’s Vinyard.
You can get a list of Maine politicians from Maine.gov . Also send the letter to tourism officials and chambers of commerce. Certainly, elaborate on what I wrote here, using your own words.
When you are done proofing your letter, type it up on the computer using a typewriter style lettering. Then sign it in blue ink with your real signature after you have run off several copies in black ink, leaving the person or group blank so you can fill that in by hand or as you print your copies out from the program you wrote them in, you just have to fill in their names but use the same letter each time. Remember, you just have to sign your name with a pen at the bottom.
Thanks for caring!
thanks! will do
The creatures thank you, each and all who care for them in any way you can from wherever you’re at. 🙂