A future "Bear Attack" statistic?

[redhawk]

I suppose that this will end up being statisticized as a bear "attack. It's an article from the USA Today. The hunters were killing bears that "might have interfered with the work of logging crews".

Official- Wash, hunter hurt chasing bear
A hunter mauled by a black bear in Forks, Wash., had been chasing the animal when it turned on its pursuers, a wildlife official said. The man was hunting Saturday under a special permit issued by the Fish and Wildlife Department to Rayonier Inc., which owns timberland near Olympic National Park. Wildlife Officer Brian Fairbanks said the bear "ran for so long, and then decided, 'We're not going to run any more.'"
The victim, whose name was not released, suffered a broken arm and wrist and two bite wounds to the thigh. A second hunter shot and killed the bear."

[twochordcool]

Olympic National Park is AMAZING - it is a disgrace that logging goes on anywhere in that peninsula. I just don't understand people.

[Judgeh]

I concede (once again) that hunting has never appealed to me. Even less as it applies to bear. Having observed several in Alaska, one close up and personal, I feel only a sense of awe and respect for them. They are magnificent animals whose only fault is that they have to share this world with the rest of us and often do harm because of our own carelessness.

[Gray Ghost]

That story really saddens me. To think that the animal had to attack as a last resort to save its life.....I can hardly stand to think about it. I find most everything that has to do with hunting pretty revolting, though I understand it acts as population control in some instances...no offense to any hunters, but a man can't help how he feels.

[Hakuna Matada]

I would hope that if I was being chased I would have a chance to turn around and leave a couple of bite wounds and broken bones before they killed me!

[Frosty]

Me, I buy leather belts and shoes at JC Penny's, and grab those handy cellophane-wrapped packages of dead animal parts in supermakets.

Killing animals is time consuming and a lot of work, so like almost everyone else in this country, I pay people to kill and butcher them for me.

[jackchinook]

I just have to chime in on this one, being that it's my old neck of the woods. I find this whole incident and its respective fallout really irks me...mostly because of the realities that it brings to light and the polarization of the people I've seen respond to it (not on this forum, but elsewhere). Let it be clear, I am not a greenie, anit-hunting vegetarian. Nor am I a trophy hunter or even a hunter for that matter. But I do support hunting when it's an effective management tool and I like to eat meat. I even went so far as to attempt to get my dad to heir me his 30.06 for deer season last fall, only to find that he'd sold it years ago. But I'm seeing guys on a forum that I used to frequent in Washington bitch about how this is all the result of illegalization of baiting and hound hunting that occured in WA a couple years ago and that it's just so sad that this guy got hurt, etc., etc. NO! NO! NO! this guy is not a meat hunter. He's a contract hunter. He gets paid by logging companies to go and hunt bears in the spring because, when the y emerge from hibernation they are damn hungry and they like to eat the young trees as they desperately try to put weight back on . This was a significant winter back in Washington and the bear is just trying to survive. I'm listening to these idiots talk about the dangers of bear attacks and how "that's why I always pack a piece or pepper spray when hiking in the Olympics" blah, blah, blah. THESE GUYS WERE CHASING THE BEAR TRYING TO KILL IT "for a long time." Duh, that's what happens when you do that to a wild animal...chase it long enough, it'll realize it's not going to get away and it'll turn and try and defend itself. This was not some casual hiker on a National Park trail. He was chasing the bear. Again, let it be known that I don't wish harm upon another person and I'm sad for the guy for getting chewed up, but seriously, the guy and logging operation are not quality people. Twochordcool is right about that peninsula. It's an amazing place but the people there are VERY shortsighted. Natural resource management on the peninsula is about 30 years behind much of the rest of the country and much of the population is 50 years behind. The long term benefit of the old growth forest out there is unchartablly huge, yet some of those people only look up on the hillsides and see dollar signs.

[Riosacandaga]

Support your right to arm bears.

[Old Rivers]

Many non-hunters find it hard to understand that a hunter, too, can have respect and admiration for the game hunted. Additionally, many non hunters are more into feeling than thinking based on logic & science. Hunters are the best and most cost effective method to control over-population of game and destruction of habitat. Controlled hunting is the best way to insure the future population of a species though I am sure there are always going to be feeling based people that will always disagree. The hunting of animals for food & population control can also be argued on a Biblical basis but I'll leave that one alone.

[redhawk]

Many non-hunters find it hard to understand that a hunter, too, can have respect and admiration for the game hunted. Additionally, many non hunters are more into feeling than thinking based on logic & science. Hunters are the best and most cost effective method to control over-population of game and destruction of habitat. Controlled hunting is the best way to insure the future population of a species though I am sure there are always going to be feeling based people that will always disagree. The hunting of animals for food & population control can also be argued on a Biblical basis but I'll leave that one alone.

In all due respect. This is not about any of that. this is about greed, and money, and nothing else.

I have never had, do not have, and will never have, any difficulty with hunters that shoot game for food. I also understant the reasons for "culling" an overpopulation (which exists because we took away their natural prey).

However I do not in any way condone. approve of or respect people who hunt game for trophies. As far as i can concerned, anyone who does that can verer ever use the word "civilized" in a conversation because it's obvious that they have no sense of the maning of the word.

I also do not believe in the use of automatic weapons. if you're not good enough to bring the game down with a regular hunting rifle, or you need one that can bag the animal 1/2 mile away, thats not sportsmanship nor is there any challenge in the kill.

There are a great majortity of people who hunt, who are sportsmen or sportswomen. There is also a segment that are interested only in the kill and do whatever they can to increase the odds of a kill and take all the sport out of it. Those are the people that i have a problem with.

I once read a post from a person in Idaho bragging about killing two bear cubs that "would never get the opportunity to bring down any elk calve's". To him, the natural selection process of nature was evil, and interfered with him killing elk from a distance with a high powered rifle and ammunition. He justified his killing (illegally, he had no permit) by making the cubs the villians.

There are sportsmen, and there are killers. Hunters can fall into either category, fortunately most of them fit into the first.

[AdkWiley]

It's very sad to hear about this. i would like to know why these bears were being hunted rather than hazed, which they do up here int eh adirondacks. Talked to a very informative person who studies bears for the DEC. They shoot rubber bullets at them, paintball them etc. He eve said if you see a bear out hiking in the adirondacks, just pick up a stick and hold it like its a riffle, the bears are so use to being shot they'll probably take off running to avoid it again. The only reason bears are shot around here are the last resort for Nuisance bears. From what I read it seems as if the only nuisance animal in this story was the human. Was there any more to this article hawk? or was that it?

[redhawk]

It was just a small piece in the USA Today. i did a little online research and it seems that this is an annual thing with the lumber company to "protect their seedlings and the envirnoment" as they put it. and it's chheaper to kill the bears then to relocate them.

It's really a Friggin shame. They cut half the forest, taking away a lot of the bears habitat and food. Then they shoot the bears who now need other sources of food as a result. And the public accepts the explanation because the area is so dependent on the logging industry.

Personally, i wish more bears would turn and attack and actually kill a few of the hunters. Then perhaps they would not be so willing to accept the blood money.

Harsh? maybe. But the humans have a choice, the bears don't. I think the hunter got what he deserved. Of course, the villiam ends ip being the bear. how dare he defent himself. How dare he attack a human who was trying to kill him.

[Frosty]

Personally, i wish more bears would turn and attack and actually kill a few of the hunters. Then perhaps they would not be so willing to accept the blood money.

More likely it would be used as an excuse to launch a widespread effort to methodically eradicate bears from the lumber holdings as a worker safety issue.

[twochordcool]

I in fact saw a black bear while driving near the Quinault River in the Olympic National Park a few years back - with the exception of seeing them at garbage dumps near Moosehead Lake it was the only time I ever saw a bear - I was very excited.

I really think that, because I love wilderness AND the big city (culture), I could only be happy living in the northeast - or Washington state.

I could probably keep my sanity in northern Montana or Idaho though!

[twochordcool]

...yet some of those people only look up on the hillsides and see dollar signs

It's funny that you mention that, because I was thinking the other day how there are really only 2 kinds of people - especially here in the Adirondacks -

1) People that can look at spectacular nature and be awed, humbled and made to feel at peace.

and

2) People that can look at spectacular nature and feel very little if anything - and are dying to find a way to exploit it and make money from it.

I like to refer to that simply as good and evil.