Should Colorado Parks and Wildlife be in the Business of Killing? Part 2: Dead Bears

30 bears killed by Colorado Parks and Wildlife this season.

Seems to be time to explore other options...

tinyurl.com/8s8bcu4

Dang...that seems like alot of bears.

Its a real quandry man has backed himself into. We move into the natural habitat of animals (and sometimes humans) and exterminate them when then "encroach" on their own territory. The sad reality is we are interrupting their food sources and personal space.

Guess that's how the food chain works, but one would think there could be a mildly better way to handle things. Hopefully something an environmentalist can figure it out.

I have a few doubts about the article on the whole, but it really proves its incompetence when it says:

"In the world renowned National Elk Refuge outside Jackson, the elk are fed. I believe we should do the same for our wildlife in Colorado. In periods of drought, food natural to a bear's diet should be flown or packed into remote feeding spots."

Uhhh, feeding a large herd Vs feeding a state's worth of sparsly populated wandering, yet territorial animals...
Yeah, uhhh... we should try that. Drop 100lbs of rasberries and a dead deer in the intersection points of a 1 mile grid layout... without killing anything.

And then:
"Or take the money spent on buying high-powered hunting rifles for Colorado Parks and Wildlife and donate it to:
www.wildanimalsanctuary.org/"

The author also seems ignorant of the fact that in Colorado teh law unambiguously states: "“no wildlife taken from the wild shall be possessed by any wildlife sanctuary." There is presently a lawsuit about that, centered on 'Meatball' a California black bear.

If you want to change the law, please lobby for that. I'm all for it. But at the moment, stirring the pot with a lack of information or misinforamtion or crazy ideas like feeding roaming wild bears (?!?!???) is not the right thing to do.

It's unfortunate, but a reality that problem bears have to be put down. I worked at a summer camp in wisconsin for 7 years and we often had bears in camp. We worked hard to not attract the bears by securing our trash and food, but sometimes bears wandered into camp anyways. Almost always the Department of Natural Resources trapped and relocated the bears, but it didn't always work, I do remember one particularly aggressive bear that had to be shot.

I think that it would be more convenient if colorado had a DNR or something similar, but in general I think it's in the best interest of the bears and the public to aggressively manage problem bears. It prevents injury to the public, and it prevents damaging the image of the bears. The only time I've seen a bear not run away from people is when they've learned to associate people with food. If people think that bears are indiscriminate man killers, then men will indiscriminately kill bears legally or illegally. It's not the most ethically comfortable situation, but sacrificing a few bears for the good of the rest is the best situation in my opinion.

Drop 100lbs of rasberries and a dead deer in the intersection points of a 1 mile grid layout... without killing anything.quote>

haha that is QUITE the visual!!! Piles of rotting meat and berries for the taking!

Scott McMahon wrote:Drop 100lbs of rasberries and a dead deer in the intersection points of a 1 mile grid layout... without killing anything.quote> haha that is QUITE the visual!!! Piles of rotting meat and berries for the taking!

Not just happening here. I get it sometimes these things have to be done. And who the hell would pay for the drops of rasberries and deer carcass? That would be a site to see!! Would look like the deer exploded. LOL!!!

Several years back they opened parts of Long Island for deer hunting because there were so many deer, there wasn't enough food and with no predators starvation and disease started to set in.

Sad for the wolf pack. No not the wolf pack from the Hangover either.
Wolf Pack to be killed