“Bears are really 200-pound ground squirrels.” ~ Jeff Traska, Wisconsin Black Bear Education Center
Lions and tigers and bears, oh my! What lovely species they were — if only we had known them.
Here is the story and video of two little black bear orphan cubs rescued along the Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina this spring.
Jeff Traska of the Wisconsin Black Bear Education Center created the first open-top enclosure for captive rescued black bears in Wisconsin. By his own description, he is a “reformed sport hunter” — a reformed bear hunter. He says, “I was curious about bears and found I did not learn anything when they were dead in the back of my truck.” He now takes care of four rescued bears on seven wooded acres with a pond. His website says, “He soon learned that bears are not the highly dangerous animals portrayed in so many…
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Exposing the Big Game 
This kind of socially acceptable violence is very, very difficult to comprehend. 😦
Bears, wolves, coyotes, cougars, lynx, bobcats, prairie dogs, squirrels, not to mention the big animals of Africa. What the hell? Has this much hunting always gone on? Are there just more people doing it because there are more people (another issue!)? Or is it just getting more notice because of the Internet? Or is it something else altogether? I have visited some of the hunting websites, and for all the talk of “ethical” or reasonable hunting claimed by the hunters, there seems to be an enormous amount of rage exhibited by some of comments. There is also the name calling, e.g., bunny hugging nuts and PETA and HSUS “fanatics.” Is some of the joy in killing and the attempt to make some animals, especially wolves, suffer a way of getting back at those who disagree or want any kind of limits? There seems an almost pathological element to it à la Ted Nugent. Sad for all the victims that they had to share this earth with their killers.
BTW: Did anyone read the article in the Washington Post “For Some Yellowstone Bison, a Date with Death”? I was hoping the bison would receive the kind of response that Cecil and Blaze did. Not quite. So sadly another animal at the mercy of hunters, ranchers, and government lackeys with not much concern from the public–aside from how good bison burgers are!! There were some people, thankfully, who remarked about the bad human behavior in the park. The bison got that much.
I think it’s something in the polluted air and water, I truly do. You’d think because there are so many people in the world, we’d all be more courteous, compassionate and orderly to one another and other animals that have to suffer on this planet alongside us. Nope. We’re worse than ever, and don’t even try to make them feel guilt or shame, restraint or less consumption – that’s politically incorrect and against their constitutional freedom! It’s been a terrible shock to see that other countries do not behave in the same entitled, selfish ways that we Americans do.
I may not visit YNP until after we have a new Interior Secretary with a new ‘vision’ for Yellowstone; one who does not favor releasing our unrestrained herd onto Yellowstone’s poor wildlife! I’d probably get in trouble for winging one of those stupid I-phones into a hot spring, if I didn’t respect the hot springs so much. I wonder if the lawn chair is still in one of the hot springs that I saw once. Soon the wildlife will be breathing a sigh of relief that we’ve gone once it becomes too cold for the poor, pampered masses.
Noone seems to think any behavior modification is needed at all after the killing of Blaze; so I fully expect another animal to be sacrificed because of another visitors trivial needs coming first, with no mandatory requirement to use bear spray.
Counting the minutes until this Administration is out the door, and may crack open a bottle of champagne.
I’m sure Donald Trumps plan would be to privatize the parks, so they can build more golf courses and hotels
I’m hoping Hilary may be a good bet; she’s already broken ranks with Obama about Arctic drilling, so that’s a good sign.