Here are some thoughts of mine that I would like to share about the bear baiting referendum:

Baiting a bear begins with placing stale donuts and other discarded foodstuffs in the same location repeatedly long before the actual hunting season. The bears become accustomed to this easy find of food and show up to feed with the same regularity. A guide will take an out of town paying hunter to a conveniently located blind who then skillfully shoots the bear when they appear. Its sort of like hunting off of a salt block.

When dogs are used in hunting they find and chase a bear. Bears are fast runners over short distances but dogs have an advantage with both speed and endurance. As with contact with bears, sometimes they get the bear, sometimes the bear gets them, but mostly the bear climbs a tree whereon the mighty hunter shoots the bear out of the tree from a safe vantage point.

Trapping bears is not like trapping small animals who are often killed in the trap. A trap may be humane in its capture but it is the long waiting for the sometimes tardy trapper that is inhumane.

What do bears eat? Anything it wants, from berries to Bambi. Bears do what comes naturally.

Can bears be a nuisance? Of course, and I trust our wildlife biologists to deal with nuisance bears.

I am all for a good sporting hunt and fair chase; but the bear hunting practices allowed in this state are hardly that. That’s why I am voting YES on question 1.

Fred W Nehring
Boothbay