by Jim Harris
Down in Montpelier, groups are actively trying to persuade legislators to ban the use of dogs to hunt bears. They either don’t realize, or don’t care, that their goal would make us all much less safe. Everybody loves to see bears. These amazing creatures are fun to watch in the wild. But no one wants to see a bear in their kitchen, and that is what is at stake here.
A wheelchair bound New Hampshire woman was attacked in her own kitchen by a bear in search of food. The attack cost her an eye! While there are only a few of these types of incidents, each one of them was a terrifying ordeal involving older ladies and even a child in his own backyard. Bears are large and potentially dangerous wild animals, and their main function in life is to find food and to create more bears.
Bears have a powerful sense of smell, which brings them into the smells that come from our kitchens, cookouts, backyards, parks, and campgrounds. They can be unpredictable when food is at stake. And they can easily become habituated to getting their food in these places where we don’t want them.
That’s where hunters come in. The barking and baying of the hounds is like a siren to the bears, teaching them that being close to people is not where food is easy to find. Bears that are pursued by hunters with hounds become conditioned to flee the presence of people, and that is exactly what diminishes the potential for dangerous encounters.
A prohibition on hunting bears with dogs will remove this deterrent, and put people, most likely children and the elderly, more at risk, not to mention our pets and farm animals. Only a few people in Vermont hunt bears with dogs. And only a few people in Vermont oppose allowing them to do so. The rest of the people benefit from the deterrent that hunters create that helps keep our bears wild and less likely to wander where they don’t belong.
I’ve been working with and enjoying dogs my entire life. When I was twelve years old, I started running hounds with older houndsmen who inspired my interest and taught me to not only about hounds but to respect the forests and everything in it. It was those experiences which made it possible for me to obtaining a BS degree in Animal Science from the University of Georgia and to be posted to the U.S. Army Combat Tracker Dog School. I’ve spent thousands of hours behind the dogs in the woods here in Vermont and all-over New England. I am also a Registered Maine Guide who understands wildlife behavior.
Together my life experiences have taught me the responsibility of taking care of and maintaining a well-trained pack of hounds, and the importance of keeping our wildlife wild.
In our society we have choices, we’re so prosperous as a nation, most of us don’t have to hunt for food. We can go to the grocery store or restaurants for our meals. But some of us choose to practice time honored traditions like hunting and fishing. We spend our spare time in the outdoors, where we pass on our respect for the land and wildlife to our own kids just as we learned when we were young. Our lifestyle teaches responsibility. The records show just how safe hunters are in the woods, and our dollars provide the lion’s share of funding for wildlife management and habitat in Vermont.
A small subset of sportsmen and women love to hunt with dogs. Raising them and training them are enormous parts of our lives, and we invest thousands of hours and dollars into our beloved hunting companions. Investments such as GPS collars that help us keep hunting dogs where they belong.
Along the way, hunting bears using dogs helps keep all Vermonters safe, even those who don’t appreciate that fact. We don’t all have to agree with each other, and we don’t all have to do the same things, but we do need to learn to tolerate our differences. Allowing a relatively small group of Vermont sportsmen and women to hunt bears with dogs provides PUBLIC SAFETY that is worth it for all of us.
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Categories: Opinion
Thank you Mr. Harris. Don’t let anyone fool you. This is not about hunting bears with hounds. Next year these people will be back for another slice of our heritage. They are anti-hunters.
This is the most well thought out and intelligent article I have seen to date on this subject. Wish Jim Harris could be my state senator.
This is the first time I have heard the argument presented here. It is cogent and potent and I hope the author will submit it elsewhere.
Yes, this article is so glorious, so much the pinnacle of intellectual brilliance, & so morally splendid it ought to be emblazoned into the VT Constitution and the author automatically be nominated as Poet Laureate for the State. Thankfully, neither will be the case, but the “dog whistles” have been tooted and all those posters who never comment on any other topic on VDC are descending as though by mere chance.
…..”keeps bears out of kitchens.”….Lol. And the open duck hunting season on L.I. kept innocent passers-by from the grave danger of bites by aggressive drakes during mating season and being struck by waterfowl while jet-skiing on the bay.
Thank goodness for human mammals….as you can readily & easily ascertain from current events happening all over the world, if it weren’t for the peaceable, loving, wonderous homo Sapiens that share this planet with other living creatures – the world would be in a state of utter & constant chaos. Oh, wait…..
Meanwhile, children are being trafficked and hunted for the sick degenerates of our society right here in the Green Mountains. Priorities? Using distraction lawfare warfare such as this is covering for the most heinous of crimes going on right under our noses every day.
Oy vey.
If a bear is not finding his food in the woods and has to resort to your kitchen…what does that say about about our management of habitat and resources, which by its nature would keep bears out of our kitchens. You have to go really far into the weeds to equate bears in your kitchen with dogs used to hunt them… geesh. Twisted logic as Steely Dan sang…
Its the habitat, stoopidsoes…and how WE manage it.
If a bears in your kitchen, it means the foodchain has lost a link.
Pure
LOGICO!
Okay, I’ll take a bite of the apple…. what does that say about our management of habitat and resources if/when a bear comes into someone’s kitchen, or in their garage, or raids their bird feeder, or their garbage can?
Well……. there was the famed apex predator of this region – the catamount or cougar – exterminated by hunters for, but of course, the “safety of Vermonters and their livestock” declared – at least officially – extinct by the early 20th century.
Now, please excuse me as I have 14 bears in my kitchen that require my attention.
“what does that say about about our management of habitat and resources, No more than my choice to go to Applebee’s rather than the Wayside tomorrow night . I might go to the Wayside next week . To me it speaks more loudly to the fact that there are a lot more bears than there used to be. According to the Vermont Fish and Wildlife Dept. “Fifty years ago, Vermont’s bear population was estimated to be less than 1,500. Over the past thirty years the population has fluctuated from 4,000- 6,500 . Jun 13, 2023”
Curious how those that have never spent extensive time afield, in Vermont’s remote woodlands have anymore behavioral experience with bears than rhinoceros. Essentially it’s a culture war lead by lonely, mature women that have been rejected by a desirable provider. Finding solace in attaching human-like emotions to wildlife they believe loves them back.
Protect Our Wildlife Vermont Organization – I just donated yet again……thanks for the reminders!
That’s: protectourwildlifevt.org
you proclaim to somehow possess the knowledge of the personal life experiences & educational backgrounds of those who dare to oppose the barbarism and cruelty you gleefully inflict upon the helpless and captive woodland animals that you ensnare in your devices of torture. In the spirit of organizations such as the DOJ or even the DHS, precisely how did you supposedly amass any such information pertaining to how much or how little time I and/or other women spent in these Vermont forests amid the flora and fauna which the NATIONAL Forest affords?
Well this is what you get when you put anti-hunters in charge, or just good old
carpetbaggers in charge, they don’t have a clue, all they know is it’s something they don’t like and something you won’t have !!
Remember today’s Vermont, is not the Vermont we grew up in, and we let it happen.
And neither is the rest of the world the same place anyone grew up in….News Flash!
Oh, and your “homie” Governor Phil Scott the RINO was born in VT and Representative Charles Wilson whom you generally concur with, is not. Even worked for years in NYC. Huh. Go figure.
Rationale? Baseless and xenophobic.
Mahatma Gandhi: THE GREATNESS OF A NATION AND ITS MORAL PROGRESS CAN BE JUDGED BY THE WAY ITS ANIMALS ARE TREATED.
And it’s all been stated in previous VDC comments, as you well know, taken directly from university research conducted by institutions of higher learning worldwide:
1.) Mammals do feel pain both physically and emotionally.
2.) Certain species exhibit empathy.
3.) Certain species display the hallmarks of grieving following loss.
4.) Mammals possess intellect and cognition.
As far as “love” goes, since I’m presuming from your affect that you likely have never experienced or exuded any such emotion yourself, I hold serious doubt that you have any ability to assess whether the animals that you wantonly inflict torment upon have such capacity. And by the way, my husband takes objection to your characterizing him as “undesirable”. He hereby challenges you to a duel with chopsticks at ten paces – or do you think you’ll be too busy slashing some captive woodland creature’s throat on the appointed day?
Trapping is Barbaric and Cruel and Torturous!
Neatly TWO-THIRDS of Vermont citizens OPPOSE trapping!
Bears routinely taking up habitation in citizen’s kitchens isn’t “a thing”.
And THANKS for continuously allowing me another segway for reminding all VDC of the realities.
Kathleen –
It’s “segue”. Segway is a tradename for an electronic transportation device.
Go back to the bears in your kitchen, and pick up a dictionary on the way.
I ran a remote farm raising beef and pork for 54 years. 164 acres and we saw bears as they crossed open fields quite frequently. Never close to buildings much less the kitchen. Maybe 3 black labrador dogs named Danny, Peter and Tuco had something to do with that. Wonderful companions as well as family members.
remember the day i was deep in the woods in my camp when at two oclock in the morning i was awake to the noise of three bears tearing apart my bird feeders those were the good old days. come up and stay overnight k.j.g. fat chance that would happen. armchair wildlife protector