Fear! Be very afraid!
To the editor:
The pro-bear baiting, trapping, hounding camp has been pushing fear to Mainers like desperate drug pushers: fear of bears running rampant through our backyards; fear of losing money the sports bring into the state. I for one am so sick of it!
It’s been found in three other states that banned these practices in the 1990s that overabundance of bears did not happen. Honest, ethical, real hunters came back to the challenge of real, fair hunting and kept the bear population in check and kept money rolling into the state. Therefore, both these fears are nonsense and nothing but paper tigers to scare the populace.
What this group will not, and has not, ever addressed is whether these three practices are fair, ethical or the right thing to do. The reason is simple. It’s a no-brainer. Any ethical, moral person who really thinks about these practices knows without a doubt that they are downright wrong, People who use these three practices are not hunting, and they’re definitely not sportsmen.
Since writing my previous letter against these horrendous acts, the only people who approached me to comment on it were hunters — real hunters. You know, the kind like in the olden days who used their skills and just a rifle to take their bear. You know, back when Maine had a hunting heritage we all could be proud of. These hunters, real hunters, told me that a large majority of hunters totally agreed with me; that these practices had nothing to do with hunting, and the fact this was going on in Maine sickened them. They encouraged me to keep on voicing opposition to these disgusting practices, to take the stench off Maine’s hunting heritage.
It’s interesting to me that cars are responsible for multiple deaths in Maine each year, and yet there is no outcry to get rid of them, get them out of our communities, at any cost, through any method. Yet bears have not caused a single death in any community across our state, and we let hysterical, unreasonable people dictate our vote which leads to killing these majestic animals in any way possible.
Fellow Mainers, please think about it before you vote. LePage doesn’t embarrass me. Being the only state that allows such egregious crimes against nature does!
Clare Kierstead
Presque Isle
