Urgent alert: Bear Hunting Expanded

[Guest guest]

Please urge the California Fish and Game Commission to reject plans to dramatically expand bear hunting throughout the state.Commission to vote on proposals THIS Wednesday, April 21 BACKGROUNDEvery year, more than 2,000 bears are legally killed by hunters across California. An estimated 40,000 to 50,000 black bears are legally hunted each year in the US and Canada, while an unknown number are also illegally poached. Shockingly, it is even legal for trophy hunters in California to chase bears with packs of hounds. To make matters worse, in January, the California Fish and Game Department (CDFG) unveiled plans that would: allow an unlimited number of bears to be killed during the trophy hunting season; permit the use of high-tech global positioning equipment and “tip switches” on hound collars to make it easy to locate and kill a bear; open the first-ever bear hunting season in San Luis Obispo County and expand the trophy hunts in Modoc and Lassen counties; and significantly expand the hound training season, allowing hounds to harass bears nearly all year long. If these proposals are adopted, bears will have virtually have no place to hide in California.WHAT YOU CAN DO:*Before Wednesday, April 21, urge the California Fish and Game Commission to reject the CDFG proposals. See talking points below. To contact the California Fish and Game Commission:Phone: 916-653-4899Email: fgcTALKING POINTS TO COMMISSIONI urge the Commission to oppose CDFG's plans because: • Trophy hunting puts additional pressures on bears, who face a host of increasing threats from poaching, habitat fragmentation and destruction, human encroachment into wildlife areas, aggressive government lethal control programs, and climate change. • State wildlife officials have failed to assess the impacts of poaching. Illegal killing of bears has increased globally, fueled by a booming international market, for bear parts, especially bear gallbladders used in traditional Asian medicine and bear paws, considered a delicacy in soup. Bear gallbladders can go for $5,000 a pound, an enticing price that has spurred bear poaching in California. Poaching of wildlife has become epidemic across the state. Violations rose from 6,538 in 2003 to 17,840 in 2007. The illegal sale of California wildlife and wildlife parts generates an estimated $100 million a year, second only to the illegal drug trade, according to CDFG officials. Yet, the state has fewer than 200 game wardens patrolling 300,000 square miles of land and water. It makes no sense to permit bear hunting when state wildlife law enforcement capabilities are so crippled. • Trophy hunting ignores the ecological value of bears. Apex species, such as bears, cougars, and wolves, play critical roles in maintaining ecosystems. Black bears often scavenge for food, playing an important role in recycling carrion. Bears also help transport berry seeds. Along salmon spawning streams, bear scat and the remains of fish carried into the woods contribute to the long-term nutrient cycle in old-growth forest. Even cambium feeding by bears, which sometimes kills trees, creates widely scattered snags that benefit other species of wildlife. • The state has failed to assess the impacts of annual increases in bears killed by hunters. According to CDFG data, the number of bears killed legally by hunters has steadily increased well beyond the agency's own 1,700 annual season limit. Yet, the CDFG has yet to analyze how these dramatic increases have affected state and local bear populations, behavior, social structure, reproduction, and cubs. Increasing the quota or eliminating the cap altogether will further stress the state's bear population and put some local populations at risk. • Hunting black bears is cruel, unethical, and environmentally harmful. In California, bears can be legally chased by hounds, treed, and then shot by hunters. Hounds have been known to pursue bears with cubs, increasing the risk that cubs could be separated from their mothers, then orphaned. It is not uncommon for hounds to maim bears, especially cubs, and even more common for bears to maim or kill an entire pack of dogs. In addition, hounds may pursue non-targeted animals, including imperiled species, putting additional stress on those species. Bears can also be killed with bow and arrow, which studies reveal produce an unacceptably high wounding rate. Allowing hunters to place GPS devices and treeing switches on hounds will inevitably make it much easier for hunters, as well as poachers, to kill more bears. For more information go to: http://www.bigwildlife.org/front_animal_page.php?page=7-- Brian Vincent, Communications Director, Big Wildlife Phone: 604-618-1030Email: brianWeb: www.bigwildlife.org"The time will come when men such as I will look upon the murder of animals as they now look on the murder of men." -- Leonardo Da Vinci"One of the penalties of an ecological education is that one lives alone in a world of wounds."-- Aldo Leopold