Did this bear hunter get what he deserved?

People hiking in bear country are advised to carry noisemakers and pepper spray, and should know bear types by the scat. Black bear scat is mostly berry seeds and squirrel fur. Grizzly bear scat has little bells in it and smells like pepper.

 

ound: OK... that's funny...

 

So this must mean they have a diet of spicy fairy's?????

 

No, silly. They eat the hikers who are advised to carry noisemakers and carry pepper spray.

I've actually seen the warning on an official government sign at the entrance to a popular hiking trail in the Rockies.

edit: Different place, same sign:

 

And when is Montana grizzly bear season this year?

I'm calling BS because Montana Fish & Wildlife shows no season, no regulations, and no licenses for grizzlies. Does anyone have any evidence that Montana FWP has these available off-line?

Separately, a hunting news story claims that the legislature recently authorized grizzly hunting to begin once the Feds have delisted grizzlies from the Endangered Species Act. But I see no indication that such delisting has occurred. Do you have any sources on this?

So grizzly hunting is still illegal in Montana. You'll have to settle for wolf hunting in MT or ID.

 

You're right I read a similar story as your second cite and I interpreted that as making it legal. My bad, sorry.

 

An "official government sign" would not use the word "shit," and probably would not have the smiley face. That sign is a joke.

As for "bear bells" they make so little noise it's unlikely a bear would hear them before you bumped into it, but they are annoying as hell. You're more likely to be attacked by a fellow hiker who's been driven nuts by the damn jingling, than to warn off a bear by wearing the stupid things. Far better to talk loud, shout, sing, etc., any time you are in thick brush where line of sight is limited.

It's not always easy to distinguish black bears from grizzlies, but it's the responsibility of a hunter to BE CERTAIN about what he's shooting at before he shoots. If he's not certain (i.e. if identification is difficult or ambiguous) then he should not shoot. Ignorance is not an excuse for shooting a protected animal.

 

I've been told this, by a park ranger, while in Glacier National Park.

Joke or not, it seems to have originated with park rangers who deal with bears.

 

Many of us have heard the story of the hiker who stops to change in to running shoes. He doesn't need to outrun the bear, merely outrun his companions.

Someone should study grizzly bear scat for the relative ratio of hiking boot vs running shoe fragments.

 

No, you're right. It's legal. As long as you miss.

 

^ This +1

 

I was told this joke by a nurse in the hospital while I was recovering from surgery. It made my day. But it's wrong. If your friend remains still while you run, the bear will probably chase you. Never run from a bear. It will trigger its chase response. Hold your ground or back away slowly while talking calmly to the bear and not making eye contact. If the bear is ignoring you (which is the most common situation) continue walking away from the bear at a normal pace, talking in a calm voice.

 

The sign is real. This particular example happens to be in a private campground, but I have seen similar elsewhere (OK, the others said 'scat', and there's no smiley.)

It's a joke, and it isn't. Hopefully when people are relaxed by the humour, they'll actually think about what they've heard. Bears don't care if you're wearing a dinner bell, and they're not going to stand there patiently while you pee your pants and fumble around in your pack. Be aware of the danger, act prudently, and you'll likely never see a bear. Fortunately, bear attacks are quite rare, and people routinely expose themselves to far more risk driving to the trailhead than they will ever encounter in bear country.

Still, it helps not to be stupid about it. Don't carry smoked salmon in your pack for lunch, and don't jog along the trail with your headphones in. That's just asking for trouble. But really, I see far more danger and risk-taking every day in the city than I ever have in the wild. I have no doubt which is more 'civilised'.

 

Voluntarily?

 

Whether an animal is raised in a pasture, or in a feedlot, slaughter facilities that process thousands of animals per day have a lot of problems, including (but not limited to):

• Worker health issues/injuries
• Improper handling of carcasses/products, introducing and/or spreading filth, bacteria, and/or disease
• Aggravated stress on the animals, which in turn taints their bodies with stress hormones
• Waste mishandling, which in turn means filth/bacteria/disease being released into water sources, land, and air
• Treating the products with chemicals to retard putrefaction and/or kill the bacteria, and/or irradiating the products for the same purposes - no labels required for this

PETA does not "oversee" slaughter facilities. If someone manages to smuggle out some proof of egregious problems, PETA will take it to the media and work to get it corrected, but with so many corporations getting restraining orders against animal activists, it's getting tougher to get proof that the above things are happening -- and they are. Every single hour of every single day.


If you don't like PETA, then maybe you can look up "the mad cowboy"...

 

Many of these factory farms are trying to get laws passed to make it illegal to film undercover videos in these CAFOS (confined animal feeding operations). Whatever spin these companies put on it I believe they have much to hide for all the reasons you have listed and more. These are large corporations and it's all about the bottom line. Here is one link about it Ag Industry Calls for Prosecutions of Undercover Animal Activists
As someone once said "If slaughterhouses had glass walls there would be more vegetarians"

 

For a couple of hundred thousand years (from the time of the first humans, until the rise of agriculture) most people ate very little meat. Mostly a few small animals they could catch. During relatively brief times, a few societies have killed big game, but these were mere blips in human prehistory. This meat was very lean, as animals depended on what forage they could find.

Agriculture greatly increased the amount of meat people could eat, but "civilization" insured that a few powerful people had all the meat they wanted, while most people had very little. Domesticated animals were better fed, but still very lean by today's standards.

The feed lot system for fattening animals for market was invented after WWII as a way to provide a market for excess corn, which the government wanted to support. Three things happened at once with this new system: Americans suddenly had access to plentiful a supply of extremely fat meat; the government and industry cooperated to very heavily promote the consumption of much larger quantities of meat, by repeating ad nauseum the lies that animal protein was more healthy than vegetable protein, and that a very large increase in protein consumption was more healthy; and animals, for the first time, were confined in extremely close quarters in huge numbers. This latter resulted in extreme cruelty and bred disease, which had to be combated with ever increasing amounts of antibiotics, which in turn led to the development of antibiotic-resistant strains of bacteria, which is causing serious health problems. And the extremely high-fat high-meat diet adopted by Americans is largely responsible for the present epidemics of obesity and heart disease.

The feed lot system is not only cruel, but it is devastating the quality of life of the people who keep it going by buying and eating the disastrously unhealthy meat it produces. And it exists for the sole purpose of supporting the production of excessive amounts of corn.

 

Yes, I have hunted black bear. :cheer2: In fact, I climbed a tree and physically knocked one out of a tree!.......................................................( a cub ).

 

Hmm..."Did this Bear Hunter get what he deserved?"

The results were ultimately so tragic, for everyone and everything involved, including the Bear....that I have a hard time saying anyone deserved the outcome. It was a tragedy born out of bad, uninformed, untrained and uneducated and impulsive decision making.