Have you people really looked at ths issue?
What is your assessment of the relations between hunters and non hunter and anti hunters? Are they good or bad? Do you think better relations would help us hunters in the long run, so we woudl not have to fight so hard to get the right to hunt deer in urban areas where they are overpopulated and eating peoples vegetables, with lots of compalints? Or where geese need to be taken out because they are craping all over the place, but people do not want then shot by those mudreous hunters?
Is that the type of image you want the public to have of us?
If not, then you should realize that a hunter killing the most famous black bear of all time, really hurt hunter non hunter relations - here - in Minnesota .
could it have been avoided. Absolutely.
From interviews I have had I know that ths hunter purposely moved his hunting site into an aarea, where he had been told by Dr.Rogers that there were 3 radio collared research sows, with cubs, the yearling female Hope and two two year old males, possibly an adult male. And the hunter stated that he did not want to shoot Hope.
Let's think about this, he purposly moved his huntng site to an area where about 70 percent of the bears he might see, were eilther collared sows with cubs, or the yearling juvenile Hope. Why would you set up in such an area if you were a 15 year veteran bear hunter, who probably had taken his share of small bears, and certainly would like to shoot a large, fat, mature boar - possibly of record book quality? I would not do it... I'd look for an area with more older bears. - because we all know it is unethical to shoot a sow with cubs. which eliminated all but three bears, two juvenile males and hope.
If he did not want to shoot Hope, even though he says yearling bears in that areas, because they get lots of food from people, are larger than normal, running about 150 pounds, why would he shoot any bear under two years old, just to be on the safe side? And I do not want to hear that a veteran bear hunter could not tell the difference between a small, long, lanky 1 year old, and a larger filled out older bear. Heck my kids can tell the difference.
This could have easily been avoided, bt this guy purposely st up in the are - where he knew the most famous blck bear in the world had her home range, one of the bears that the insensitive , crass pedople who started the "Lucy; Bear with a Bounty" (talk about ruining hunter / non hunter relations) page talked about killing in the crudest adn most inflammatory language possible.
This had the non hunting public boiling mad -before Hope was killed. Out image was already damaged because of that guy and the publicity on the TV and in the newpaper.
So, what does this person do? He kills a bear that clearly was not an adult (in fact Dr. Rogers tells me she weighed about 100 pounds), not just any bear, or any reseaerch bear, but theone bear he sasi he did not want to kill.
Was this guy even thinking. Did he care about public perception of hunters at all? Did he think about the $5000 Jackpot offered if no one shot a research bear? I do not believe he was, that he even caared about hsi fellow hunters - or he would not have setup in that area in the first place, and he would not have shot a bear that clealy was under two years of age.
Meanwile I, in my articles and seminars, and my StarTribune Blog, have been trying to show the non hunting public that conservation is needed to save our wild places, and that hunting is a needed game management tool - which means it is not a bad thing - it is a good thing, something the non-hunting public should actually be thanking us for. And this guy comes along and - not in one unthinking moment --- but probably in a week long series of purposeful decisions --- ends up killing the one bear that would incite non hunters, in an avoidable act that could ruin hunter / non hunter relations - more than any other bear in the world.
So - lets stop acting macho - and thnk about what really happened here. If you are not as mad as I am - you should be. This guy really hurt us. And I do not know what I can do to repair what he has done, other than describe him as one insensitive, uncaring hunter, among a whole bunch of responsible well meaning hunters. It may take us years to repair this.
God bless,
T.R.
This guy does not even deserve the right to be called a "hunter" . Hunters make sure of what they are shooting at, care about their fellow hunters, would not jeopardize their fellow hunters chances of winning $5000, and would not make a huge mistake, which he knew would ruin the image of hunters as a whole, and hunting itself - because he cared out public perception.
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Topic: Famous bear shot and killed by hunter (Read 9995 times)
