by Ted Williams

On February 18, the Vermont Bowhunters Association petitioned the state Fish and Wildlife Board to lift the ban on hunting bears over garbage. A decision is expected April 22.

Bear baiting is a dying, discredited practice. Only 12 states still permit it.

Vermont’s bear biologist, Jaclyn Comeau, warns that baiting spreads sarcoptic mange. This fatal disease, transmitted by saliva and caused by mites that burrow into skin, is a growing threat to Vermont bears. Few, if any, deaths are slower or more agonizing. Comeau also expresses concern that bear baiting will lead to the orphaning of sow-dependent cubs.

“Baiting takes unfair advantage of the survival strategies of bears,” explains Wayne Pacelle, president of Animal Wellness Action. “In fall, bears feed for up to 15 hours a day to build fat reserves for a long period of dormancy, a phase known as ‘hyperphagia.’ Baiting exploits this almost constant need to feed.”

Petitioners contend that bear baiting will reduce human-bear conflicts. It will do precisely the opposite.

This from the National Park Service: “Bear baiting is functionally equivalent to feeding bears. Bears may defend a bait station similar to how they would defend a carcass, and bear baiting can lead to human food-conditioning in bears. Bear baiting also increases the likelihood bears will be killed in defense of life and property, and alters natural bear behaviors and ecological processes.”

The White Mountain National Forest offers this counsel and decree: “Don’t invite bears into your site by leaving food out. Keep food, garbage, coolers, pet food, canned or bottled beverages, and other bear attractants in a hard-sided vehicle … or an approved bear-resistant food container. Pack out all trash, leftover food, and litter. Feeding bears, intentional or unintentional [sic], is prohibited!”

And yet, the Forest permits hunters to feed bears garbage. The hypocrisy is breathtaking.

If you feed bears because you’re trying to photograph them, you’re likely to get busted. But feeding bears in 12 states and national forests in 10 of those states is fine if you’re only trying to kill them.

As a lifelong hunter and outdoor writer, I get scolded by bear baiters for condemning a method of hunting they say I’ve never experienced. But I have experienced it.

Gray’s Sporting Journal, a beautifully illustrated, literate celebration of fair chase, sent me to Jackman, Maine, to research bear baiting for an exposé entitled “Garbaging for Bears.”

I was armed only with a camera, but other clients toted high-powered rifles, semi-automatic shotguns, Bowie knives and big-bore handguns. Some had ammo-laden bandoliers draped around their shoulders.

Before we reclined at the bait stations, our outfitter, Jack, sat us down for a safety lecture. He held up underpants that he and I could have simultaneously climbed into. Jack ran his index finger through a hole at the center of a stiff, black circle the size of a frying pan.

The previous owner had ripped himself a new one by practicing his quick draw. “I think I shot myself in the ass,” he moaned to Jack, who had noticed him swaying on the dirt road.

“He had a fat ass,” declared Jack, superfluously. “I grabbed one of the cheeks and pulled it up and said, ‘Hey, you did shoot yourself in the ass.’”

Jack got a doctor to sew up the new hole, and next morning the guy was back contemplating a bag of reeking garbage and sitting on pillows. So grateful was the client for the repair job that he asked Jack what he could do for him. Jack said, “You can give me your skivvies for my safety lectures.”

To experience bear baiting, I watched Jack’s garbage for five hours and 16 minutes with George, an 18-year-old from Paeonian Springs, Virginia. Besides 750,000 black flies, the only wildlife I saw was a red squirrel. George, who only heard it, said it was “a bear for sure.”

George had saved his money for a dream hunting trip, and all he got to see of the storied north woods was a half-acre around a bag of rotten meat hanging from a tree.

Author is a full-time freelance writer specializing in fish and wildlife, and serves on the Circle of Chiefs of the Outdoor Writers Association of America.

https://e360.yale.edu/authors/ted-williams

https://writersontherange.org/writer/ted-williams/

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