Mainers for Fair Bear Hunting
To the editor:
Last week’s letter by Anita Theriault of Portage Lake was written in opposition to my stand on the Mainers for Fair Bear Hunting and only proved to me that people are listening, people want to hear the truth and people want to vote “Yes on #1.” I am delighted to have people respond to this issue as it has so often proven my main points. (1) The main core of the opposition are lazy and cruel people who are not “real” hunters and (2) Follow the money trail – follow the profit margin.
The lady’s letter states that she is a not a hunter, but she was writing to tell people how she felt the vote might hurt business in her area. Do you remember my saying last week that you should “follow the money.” This is the core group of the opposition. A recent advertisement in the Maine trophy-hunting websites: read, “Guaranteed Hunt – If you schedule this hunt and don’t see a bear to shoot, you can return next season for free.”
Had she researched objectively before she stated that Fair Bear Hunting would “hurt business” in her area, no, she simply just felt Fair Bear Hunting would hurt business in her area. If she had researched the issue, she would have realized that all the other states that have banned these horrific, cruel practices. have proven that banning baiting, hounding and trapping does improve the quality and number of “real hunters” who come to their state and that it has also stabilized their bear population and deceased the number of nuisance bears mainly due to the fact that the bear are not being tricked and taught to seek out campgrounds and garbage areas for food.
Maine is the last state that allows these cruel practices. The issue is not to ban bear hunting, but to make it legal to only allow fair bear hunting practices. We must have a bear hunt, but must we be lazy and unnecessarily cruel while hunting. Please tell your friends and family to “run” to the polls and to vote “Yes, on #1.”
Norma Milton
Caribou
