Mainers will soon have the opportunity to ban three extraordinarily cruel methods of bear hunting in our state—trapping, hounding and baiting. Maine is the only state that still allows trapping, while hounding and baiting have been banned for years in Colorado, Oregon, Washington and Montana, states that can rightfully boast of renowned fair chase bear hunting and responsible wildlife management.

The referendum, Question #1, is NOT an anti-hunting measure. It would only eliminate three exceptionally ugly and unsportsmanlike ways of taking bears.

Mainers are traditionalists, independent and fair. Baiting is hardly a Maine tradition—it’s been allowed only for the past forty years and is controversial. And it certainly isn’t fair. Putting out barrels of garbage—donuts, pizza and candy laced with restaurant grease—to lure bears to killing sites where they can be shot at close range is unethical, disrespectful to the wilderness experience and dishonorable. It’s impossible to convincingly argue otherwise.

The Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife (IFW) is noisily opposing the referendum and has produced slick videos (bankrollers unknown) sometimes employing uniformed employees dishing out fear (“Question 1 is a serious threat to public safety”) and asking us to trust them and their wildlife biologists. Once Mainers for Fair Bear Hunting called them on their unethical practices, they agreed to stop, but they are still asking the public to trust them.

Trust them? They use garbage as a managing tool, benefitting outfitters catering to mostly out-of-state hunters who pay $3000 for the bait barrel experience and an almost guaranteed kill. It’s really not much different from a “canned hunt” which is rightly deplored by the public and true sportsmen.

Trust them? IFW claims baiting keeps the bear population stable. In fact the number of bears has increased 30% in the last ten years due to the manipulation and supplementation of food supplies. We are constantly told by park rangers and wildlife professionals not to feed wild animals, to secure our garbage cans, camp sites and vehicles. Leaving out unmonitored bird seed in our yards is even discouraged. But the annual dumping of seven million tons of rotted junk food around the Maine wilderness is allowed by the permitted few to entice concentrations of bears into specific areas for easy kills.

We’ve all heard the mantra “Keep Wildlife Wild” but IWF blatantly trashes its own advice. How about “A Fed Bear Is a Dead Bear” meant to discourage human bear interactions which could result in “nuisance” bears? Lazy hunters and outfitters gleefully take this adage literally, bragging “we don’t just bait our bears, we feed them”—setting out large drums of garbage up to thirty days before hunting season even begins.

Trust them? State agencies funded by taxpayer money should certainly not be attempting to influence a vote. IFW claims that years of scientific research has proven that baiting, hounding and trapping are needed to protect the public from undesirable bear encounters, and that baiting does not habituate bears to human food or alter their natural behavior, often using skewed comparisons with far more urbanized states. In fact, their research and in-field observation have proven nothing of the sort and no published peer-reviewed studies exist to bolster their assertions.

Many hunters consider baiting unacceptable and unethical. The practice certainly appeals to those less skilled and experienced. It’s almost as if IFW considers hunters incapable of acquiring the true and satisfying wilderness skills that result in a successful hunt because the myth that you can’t hunt bears without baiting them is just that—a myth.

IWF isn’t encouraging good sportsmanship by permitting baiting, hounding and trapping. Banning these cruel (and in the case of baiting, simply ludicrous) methods will result in healthier wildlife populations and a more honorable hunt utilizing traditional scouting and tracking techniques and informed habitat awareness.

Bring back fair chase and truly traditional hunting in Maine by voting YES on this important referendum.

Caitlin Hills
Waldo County Coordinator, Yes on 1
Mainers for Fair Bear Hunting
Belfast