Distorted bear message is ‘evil’
To the editor:
We are close to that day of Nov. 4, 2014, when we hopefully will decide to be a more ethical hunting state by ending the cruel practices of baiting, hounding and trapping bears.
The Portland court ordered the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife (IFW) to release internal emails which had been illegally withheld from the Mainers for Fair Bear Hunting. These emails prove that (1) the IF&W spent $10,000 of taxpayer money to have an outside designer create negative campaign ads against Question 1. (2) the department sent it staff to professional media training against question 1. and (3) and the opposition and the IF&W had coordinated their media strategy against the Mainers for Fair Bear Hunting.
According to Katie Hansberry, Maine director of HSUS, the “(IFW) is an agency with close ties to the bear-baiting industry, financially conflicted because of the fees that go to the agency, and with personnel emotionally and personally invested in continuing these unsporting and inhumane practices
This evidence also shows the department’s own biologists do not believe in the scare tactics being used by the opposition to Mainers for Fair Bear Hunting. One biologist said that “Since there has not been an unprovoked bear attack in the history of the white settlement in Maine, it is not a realistic threat.”
I, again, wish to tell readers to follow the money. Distorting facts and paying to give the public false information is not an ethical way to campaign for or against any cause. Freedom of speech is our right and privilege, but to lie about the facts or to be paid to distort a viewpoint is just evil.
We are grateful the HSUS along with other national, state, environmental and animal welfare groups who joined us to expose these unethical practices. Without this financial aid, the well organized media and physical support we received from them, our small group of supporters would have felt we were being run over by an army tank. Fight takes might and it takes an army of people who believe in a cause and are willing to make that cause a win priority. The fight of the Mainers for Fair Bear Hunting has been well run by Wayne Parcell, president and CEO of the HSUS, and Hansberry. Those of us in the trenches worked hard to get the truth out to the public, but without these able leaders we could never have gotten to the truth.
Yes, we need the bear hunt. But statistics show that baiting actually increases the bear population by creating a reliable food source which allows the population to grow. Not baiting deceases the bear population. Currently, bear baiting trains the bear to a constant food source of 7 million pounds of junk food yearly. A well-fed bear is your nuisance bear and that is your dangerous bear who will seek out human populations in search for more food. Trapping and hounding are cruel. How can you say it is a sport? If you are not brave enough to hunt as a true sportsman, just stay home.
On Nov. 4, we have an opportunity to stop cruelty in Maine. Please vote “Yes” on Question 1.
Norma Milton
Caribou
