To the Editor:
Once again the notorious anti-hunting Humane Society of the United States is attempting to regulate how bears are hunted in the State of Maine.
This Washington, D.C. based organization has publicly promised to spend $3,000,000 to have a ballot item placed by petition on our November 2014 election slate calling for the removal of trapping, baiting, and hunting with dogs from our state bear hunting regulations.
HSUS was successful in doing this in California last year, and now has trained their sights on the much poorer state of Maine where sportsmen will have difficultly in raising funds to combat this invasion of our traditional and economically important sport of bear hunting.
With an annual income approaching $150,000,000, primarily from their direct mail programs, HSUS represents a threat to Maine wildlife management that cannot be ignored.
Maine’s black bear population is larger than that of any other state. Estimated at more than 30,000 and growing, this healthy population must be controlled to prevent confrontations or conflict with humans. The only way to accomplish this is by hunting or trapping, procedures that have proven to be successful for decades.
Hunting bear is not the same as hunting deer or other animals. Naturally shy and wary of humans while in their deep woods habitat, bears are rarely seen, much less shot at by a walking hunter. One would have a better chance of seeing a bear at the town dump, or digging into garbage cans in residential areas, or tearing apart birdfeeders to get at the seeds.
With more people moving from urban areas to more rural surroundings here in Maine, the chances of dangerous encounters between humans and bears becomes more than just a rare occasion. Our ever expanding bear population must continue to be controlled by hunting methods that have worked for generations, i.e. baiting to entice a bear to a spot where it can be killed humanely with one shot or tracking and coursing a bear with Plott hounds until it climbs a tree or stops to face the dog and is again, killed with a single shot.
The HSUS constantly calls these hunting methods cruel when in fact they are the most humane way to instantly dispatch a bear. To force hunters to have to take a snap shot at a running bear in thick woods, probably only wounding it and having it die a lingering death days or weeks later, is cruel. Using bait or bear dogs is not.
To eliminate baiting, use of dogs, and trapping would mean the end of bear hunting in Maine. No longer would thousands of out-of-state bear hunters be drawn to Maine each fall. The negative economic impact would be enormous. Hundreds of Maine Guides depend on out-of-state bear hunters for a substantial portion of their annual income. Lodging, food, and other purchases mean additional income for our state.
Equally important would be the environmental impact. No longer would our Inland Fisheries and Wildlife department be able to count on a significant bear hunting season to control the bear population growth if these efforts by HSUS pass in November.
One must understand the strategy the Humane Society of the United States employs to change hunting legislation in our country. It’s the camel’s nose under the tent… get one part of the rules changed now, more next year, and eventually they can eliminate all hunting.
Nine years ago, the HSUS was successful in getting these proposed changes to Maine bear hunting laws on the November ballot. Fortunately, our thinking public voted against these radical changes.
It is incredible to imagine that Mainers would allow this well-financed, out-of-state organization to dictate changes to our hunting laws that hurt us economically and environmentally. All thinking Maine voters must first refuse to sign any petition to place these changes on the November 2014 ballot, and should it make the November slate, to vote a resounding “No” on these revisions to our Maine hunting laws.
