I spent 10 years training and searching in the woods of Maine in search and rescue. During training, it required long hours playing victim for simulated searches and on actual search missions, clearing assigned areas. Never once, did I ever see a bear and to my knowledge, neither did anyone else in our organization. My only encounter with bears was in a wooded area next to my home where two cubs were high up in a tree patiently waiting for their mother to return. I called the Bangor Daily News and they sent a photographer out to capture the playful tree hugging cubs. While the photographer was taking pictures, we could hear the mother pacing in the woods across the road. With car doors open, the photographer and I were ready to jet into his car had she bolted out of the woods and made a beeline for us. She never did! The cubs remained in the tree for the rest of the day. The next morning, they were gone. The photos made the front page of the BDN.
People need to understand that bears are not the problem and that scare tactics by the IF & W are not going to influence the educated and informed people of Maine. What the IF & W’s deliberate and false strategies have done so far, is to only provoke unfounded panic to Maine citizens who are easily persuaded and have no awareness of the facts. I would really like to know the location of the two victims who were attacked by bears (out of state) and the circumstances behind those attacks on the most recent IF & W ad.
Wardens assured search and rescue personnel that they had nothing to fear when searching in the Maine woods– that black bears were the least of our worries because of their shy and indifferent nature. They stated, bears would be long gone before we even entered the woods. Personally, fear in the Maine woods was non-existent for me, except when we were called out to search for lost hunters because they were armed, disoriented and, in some instances, intoxicated. There are many honorable and responsible hunters in Maine who are against this brutal method of “so-called” hunting and want to see bears pursued in the traditional manner of our forefathers.
Feeding bears to fatten them up and executing them when they least expect it, is a cowardly way of getting a bear. This money making racket needs to end. No more! In the upcoming Election, let the intelligent, knowledgeable, kindhearted and sensible voters prevail. Voting YES on #1.
Mary C. Howe
Bath
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