Michael A. Sawyers
Cumberland Times-News
December 16, 2007 10:19 am
—
The Humane Society of the United States is all upset again.
I don’t blame them, though, they make a lot of money by being upset.
You know, I keep wanting to like the HSUS, but they keep coming out with statements opposing hunting. They keep wanting to stop the thing that is the focal point of my annual existence and, I might add, a completely legal avocation.
Actually, I’m sure I would like many of the individuals who work for or are members of HSUS, as long as we didn’t talk about hunting.
I know that’s true.
For example, most of my readers would likely be shocked by my personal politics, figuring that because I am such an avid hunter and a user of firearms that I must believe in certain ways about certain things.
A bunch of guys with whom I hunted for years made that assumption until they found out otherwise. That discovery on their part resulted in a heated campfire debate at hunting camp, fueled in part by adult beverage.
“I thought you were one of us,” one fellow said, adding that he could no longer talk with me because we had quite divergent opinions about what Ronald Reagan had done to our country.
“I am one of you,” I said. “I’m a hunter and I just helped you look for three hours for a deer you hit with an arrow.”
To that person’s credit and to mine, we continue to be good friends. We just never talk about politics.
I think the same could be true with a bunch of the animal righteous people (ARP). We just wouldn’t be able to talk about hunting.
Anyway, that said, ARP continues to be up in arms about the Maryland bear hunt. The most recent published statement from ARP attempts to make a point about how terrible it is to shoot bear cubs.
ARP cites some numbers, numbers which I will take at face value without double-checking them with the Maryland Wildlife and Heritage Service.
ARP says that of the 152 bears killed during Maryland’s four bear hunts that 24 were cubs.
ARP spokesman Michael Markarian said that had these cubs wandered into West Virginia or Virginia that they would be protected because laws there don’t allow for the shooting of small bears.
Really! You know why? Because in West Virginia and Virginia everybody who buys a license can go bear hunting. Those state resource managers can tell hunters not to take young bears and still get the harvest that is necessary.
In Maryland, just 220 people get licenses by way of a drawing and these people already know that the hunt will be stopped when the harvest reaches a much lower number, such as 51 during this most recent season.
As Wildlife Biologist Harry Spiker said before the initial bear hunt in 2004, a dead bear is a dead bear and is removed from the landscape. From a biologist’s standpoint, the age of the dead bear was of no concern. Rightly so. Emotion is not a factor in scientific wildlife management.
Because ARP is so alarmed that young bears are killed in Maryland, I’m wondering if they would favor a couple hunting techniques that would make it much easier for hunters to determine the size of the bear they are considering shooting.
The Maryland wildlife agency originally wanted to allow baiting during the bear hunt, but backed off figuring that getting the hunt established would be enough of a struggle without dealing with that volatile issue. In fact, Maryland’s bear hunt has survived court challenges, legislative attacks and, at least until now, campaigns via the media as currently engineered by ARP.
Baiting, though, can be a very good management tool when it comes to shooting bears of certain sizes. The bait most often used by state wildlife folks for management purposes is stale pastries.
By watching bears for a considerable amount of time as they dilly dally around a bait station, hunters can compare sizes of animals. In addition, hunters can educate themselves before they go afield, knowing that a bear that matches the size of a 55-gallon bait drum may be one they want to kill, while one that is smaller will not be shot.
Hunters can paint marks on trees at the bait site, knowing that a bear whose back is as high as the mark will likely weigh a certain amount.
Another good way to closely estimate the size of a bear is to make it climb a tree where it can be clearly observed.
The best way to make a bear climb a tree is to chase it with a pack of dogs as is legally done in a number of counties in West Virginia.
So, knowing ARP’s concern for young bears (Markarian says such animals have not yet developed any skills to evade trophy hunters), I propose that the 2008 bear hunt in Maryland be changed so that baiting and the use of dogs are both legal.
If ARP doesn’t want to go with that plan, then I say keep your doughnuts in a bag and your dogs in a kennel, put a weight limit on a legal bear and open the bruin hunt up to everybody who buys a license.
That’ll protect those cubs.
Contact Michael A. Sawyers at msawyers@times-news.com.
Copyright © 1999-2008 cnhi, inc.