Bears deserve protection
To the editor:
We have a chance this Election Day to stop the unsporting bear hunting practices of baiting, hounding and trapping. To do it, vote “Yes” on Question 1. If you haven’t voted in years or even if you haven’t registered to vote, this is the election to do so.
You can help protect our bears. This issue is pretty simple.
It’s just plan unfair to lure bears with food, then snare them in painful cable traps. These bears struggle and suffer. It’s not fair for people to set packs of dogs into the forest to chase frightened bears to death. And it’s certainly unfair to allow the dumping of donuts and grease in the woods to bait bears. Bait puts all of us at risk because it trains bears, who are smart and naturally wary, to associate food with humans. Everyone in The County knows to take in their garbage and bird feeders to prevent problem bears — there shouldn’t be an exception for the trophy killing of bears so out-of-staters can mount our bears on their walls.
My husband is a hunter and we agree, these practices are just plain wrong. Let’s make it right. A “Yes” vote for Question 1 will still allow bear hunting in Maine, but it will at least make it a fair sport.
Catherine Burrows
Caribou
Only interested in a fair bear hunt
To the editor:
As a life-long outdoorsman and avid hunter, I urge The County to vote “Yes” on Question 1 to restore Maine’s reputation. It’s well past time to say “Yes” to a ban on the unfair shooting of treed, fed, and trapped bears.
Ask yourself: Is it fair to lure bears with food, then snap traps on them, leaving them wounded and suffering? Is it fair to set packs of dogs to chase terrified bears through the woods until they meet their end? Is it fair to spread piles of donuts and junk food through the woods, then shoot bears as they feed?
We’ve heard it all our lives. It’s just not smart to tame wild bears by feeding them until they associate the smell of humans with food. It’s illegal to feed them in neighborhoods and campgrounds; there’s no sense in allowing it for a lazy trophy kill. It has the same impact on bears, dangerously bringing them closer to people.
Bear hunting is a long tradition in Maine. I, for one, would be glad to join the bear hunt, but only a fair bear hunt.
John Burrows
Caribou
Baiting policy makes zero sense
To the editor:
In my neighborhood, we’re told to secure garbage, pet food, and bird seed so that we don’t attract wild bears. But the state allows people to go into bear territory and set out piles of donuts, junk food and garbage to attract bears and shoot them.
This makes absolutely no sense. The bear baiters are doing the very thing we aren’t supposed to do — teach wild bears to seek out human food.
We all need to vote “Yes” on Question 1, which will stop this ridiculous bear baiting, along with the unsporting practices of hounding and trapping bears. Bear hunting will still continue to thrive in Maine, since that’s what happened when other states ended these practices two decades ago. But people won’t be spreading junk food in the woods anymore to lure wild animals.
Lynn Cross
Caribou
Maine is for ‘real’ hunters
To the editor:
My dear Mainers, I have lived in this state for many decades. I have walked in the Maine woods. I’m asking you to show some compassion for our Maine bears and, for those who want to hunt, I’m asking you to really hunt. Learn how or go with a guide who knows how.
My thoughts and prayers are with my fellow Mainers and with the bears. Please show some compassion and sportsmanship.
Vote “Yes” on 1 in November and live with a clear conscience. Vote “Yes” on 1 to ban the unsportsmanlike and mean use of dogs, bait, and traps in bear hunting.
Linda Fortin
Caribou
Practices don’t belong in Maine woods
To the editor:
We are voting “Yes” on Question 1 to ban the cruel and inhumane practices of trapping, baiting and hounding of bears. Question 1 will not ban hunting or the hunting of bears in Maine.
Maine is home to and hosts many of the most conscientious sportsmen and sportswomen in North America. I’m proud to live in Aroostook County with so many of these men and women. It is only fitting that we give these bears a fighting chance. The sport and skill are missing from baiting, trapping or hounding.
Picture a Maine sportsman in the woods — in that scene, there probably isn’t a bear tethered by a paw struggling to get free, or a bear surrounded by a pack of high-tech radio or GPS-collared dogs, and there probably aren’t heaps of rotting food in our North Woods.
These practices don’t belong in our woods and our bears don’t deserve to suffer from them, so we’re voting “Yes” on Question 1 to ban them.
Sharon Mahoney, Mapleton
Brenda Perkins, Presque Isle
Distorted bear message is ‘evil’
To the editor:
We are close to that day of Nov. 4, 2014, when we hopefully will decide to be a more ethical hunting state by ending the cruel practices of baiting, hounding and trapping bears.
The Portland court ordered the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife (IFW) to release internal emails which had been illegally withheld from the Mainers of Fair Bear Hunting. These emails prove that (1) the IF&W spent $10,000 of taxpayer money to have an outside designer create negative campaign ads against Question 1. (2) the department sent it staff to professional media training against question 1. and (3) and the opposition and the IF&W had coordinated their media strategy against the Mainers for Fair Bear Hunting.
According to Katie Hansberry, Maine director of HSUS, the “(IFW) is an agency with close ties to the bear-baiting industry, financially conflicted because of the fees that go to the agency, and with personnel emotionally and personally invested in continuing these unsporting and inhumane practices.”
This evidence also shows the department’s own biologists do not believe in the scare tactics being used by the opposition to Mainers for Fair Bear Hunting. One biologist said that “Since there has not been an unprovoked bear attack in the history of the white settlement in Maine, it is not a realistic threat.”
I, again, wish to tell readers to follow the money. Distorting facts and paying to give the public false information is not an ethical way to campaign for or against any cause. Freedom of speech is our right and privilege, but to lie about the facts or to be paid to distort a viewpoint is just evil.
We are grateful the HSUS along with other national, state, environmental and animal welfare groups who joined us to expose these unethical practices. Without this financial aid, the well organized media and physical support we received from them, our small group of supporters would have felt we were being run over by an army tank. Fight takes might and it takes an army of people who believe in a cause and are willing to make that cause a win priority. The fight of the Mainers for Fair Bear Hunting has been well run by Wayne Parcell, president and CEO of the HSUS, and Hansberry. Those of us in the trenches worked hard to get the truth out to the public, but without these able leaders we could never have gotten to the truth.
Yes, we need the bear hunt. But statistics show that baiting actually increases the bear population by creating a reliable food source which allows the population to grow. Not baiting deceases the bear population. Currently, bear baiting trains the bear to a constant food source of 7 million pounds of junk food yearly. A well-fed bear is your nuisance bear and that is your dangerous bear who will seek out human populations in search for more food. Trapping and hounding are cruel. How can you say it is a sport? If you are not brave enough to hunt as a true sportsman, just stay home.
On Nov. 4, we have an opportunity to stop cruelty in Maine. Please vote “Yes” on Question 1.
Norma Milton
Caribou
A bear hunt should be hard work
To the editor:
There’s been a lot of concern in the County that banning bear baiting might hurt the economy. However, a “Yes” on Question 1 vote will bring the fairness back to our bear hunt. This will make the hunt a challenge, making guides and outfitters more necessary, and keeping hunters in Maine for more than a day or two.
Now, in Maine, shooters are almost guaranteed a trophy kill over a heaping pile of garbage. Sure, the outfitters have to lug jelly donuts and other pastries out to bait sites, which they keep claiming is hard work.
Guiding a bear hunt is hard work — as it should be, as hunting should be.
Big bear hunting states out west banned baiting twenty years ago and have seen an increase in the number of bear hunters and an increased influx of money to their economy from fair hunting.
A “Yes” vote on Question 1 vote is good for all of us, for the bears and for County folk, especially the guides.
Louanne Reitmeyer
Caribou
Save hunting in Maine
To the editor:
I am writing this letter mainly because I am tired of those outside of Maine telling those who love Maine how to live and govern our beautiful state. It is time those in Maine took back the Maine we love.
I am an old-fashioned Mainer who grew up loving deer hunting in the beautiful state of Maine. While in the military during the Vietnam era, I missed this beautiful state and what it stood for. The saying was, “So goes Maine, so goes the nation.” We are losing the old Maine.
I am writing this because there is too much misguided information floating around on the bear hunting issue on the ballot. I also believe some of those who are making the ads do not realize what is at stake. Let me fill you in. The people who are funding the “stop bear baiting” view are a group referred to as HSUS. This is the Humane Society of the United States. Their goal is to stop all manner of hunting, state by state.
For the Maine Guide making the ad against baiting, if they have their way, you will be out of a job. HSUS is a mega-million-dollar organization that prides itself on spending millions in states to kill hunting. The bear issue is just the start. Their assets are close to $200 million. They don’t care about Maine, only their agenda. They don’t want Maine to return to the old hunting ways. They don’t want any hunting at all.
Let me make a plea to all Mainers. If you hunt or fish or lobster or raise cattle, sheep, ducks or any other thing to eat or anything to do with animals, you need to go and vote ‘no’ on this issue. They won’t be happy until we are all living on vegetables. Don’t say this does not concern you.
If you value Maine tradition, don’t be fooled by their hype. Get out and vote ‘no’ and defeat the outsiders trying to tell Maine what to do. I may be old, but I am not stupid. As the old saying in Maine goes, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” Our hunting management laws are not “broke.” They work just fine. Trust those who are regulating the hunt, even if we don’t always agree 100 percent.
Ambrose Rolfe
Township 10, Hancock County
Killing without honor, compassion
To the editor:
I heard Ms. Camuso with the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife say that shooting trapped, chased, and fed bears is “kind.” There is absolutely nothing “kind” about killing animals without honor and compassion.
Mainers, join with me in voting “Yes” on Question 1 to stop bear trapping with painful snares, bear hounding with radio-collared dogs, and bear baiting with food slops and candy.
I’m appalled this is allowed to continue in our state – with the motto, “The Way Life Should Be.” This is most certainly the way life shouldn’t be.
Let’s bring honor back to hunting and compassion to our animals by voting “Yes” to ban these very unkind practices and bolstering fair hunting.
Mary Rowe
Caribou
