Question 1 doesn’t seek to end the Maine tradition of hunting – it aims to restore the fair-chase component and maintain hunting as a sport, not a mousetrap.

TV ads by the “No on 1” camp, featuring Department of Inland Fisheries & Wildlife employees, claim that passing Question 1 could be a threat to our public safety. Yet they offer no factual evidence of an increase in bear-related attacks or confrontations.

What they also fail to recognize is that Question 1 allows the use of baiting, hounding and trapping when protecting property, public safety or research. It’s quite clear: their public safety argument is counterfactual and misleading to our voters.

Why are we the only state to allow these inhumane tactics to hunt our bears? It’s time we re-establish our bear hunting procedures as fair-chase: responsible, effective, humane and true to the sport and tradition of Maine hunting.

Jeana Roth

Gorham