Maryland's Black Bear Hunt: Back and Worse Than Ever

	The HSUS

For the second year running, Maryland's black bears have come into the deadly sights of trophy hunters. In October, The Maryland Department of Natural Resources (DNR) conducted another hunt of Maryland's vulnerable bears, a population that hadn't been hunted for half a century before 2004. Last year's hunt went forward despite public and legislative opposition, and a state court ruling that the DNR violated Maryland laws in its approval of the bear hunt.

When this year's hunt ended, 40 bears had been killed, twice as many as in the year before. Three of the animals were reported killed by children as young as 8 years old, as Maryland has no minimum hunting age.

The DNR, with the backing of Maryland Governor Robert L. Ehrlich, Jr., justifies the hunt as a measure to address conflicts between bears and humans, but scientific scrutiny and an examination of Maryland's history with bears undermines the accuracy of those justifications.

The HSUS has now called on state lawmakers to pass legislation prohibiting the ill-conceived bear hunt before it can be repeated next October.

A Hunted History

Maryland has no record of black bears attacking humans. The black bear is quite different from its often-mischaracterized western cousin, the grizzly. Black bears are much smaller, consume a mostly vegetarian diet, and are more inclined to flee at the sight of a human than to show aggression. While the bears may raid carelessly-uncovered garbage, food, and bird feeders as sources of food, they are unlikely to attack.

For 50 years, Marylanders lived peacefully with their tiny black bear population. In the first half of the century, black bears had been hunted nearly to extinction in Maryland, prompting their reclassification in 1972 from "forest game animal" to "endangered species." Under their 50-year respite from hunting, the bear population rebounded slowly, hindered by habitat loss, slow reproduction rates, and hunting in neighboring states.

Then, in 2004, the return of trophy hunting—thinly veiled as human-bear conflict management by the state—renewed the threat to black bears.

Short on Science

Last year, when the DNR proposed the first black bear hunt in more than 50 years, The Maryland General Assembly's Joint Committee on Administrative, Executive, and Legislative Review rejected the DNR's proposal. The Committee stated that the proposal did not include a sound scientific basis for a hunt.

Despite the lack of scientific review, and against the wishes of a majority of Maryland's citizens, Governor Robert Ehrlich vetoed the decision of the Committee, and ordered the hunt to go forward. 

Ehrlich's decision prompted an outcry from the three members of Maryland's U.S. Congressional Delegation, Chris Van Hollen (D-8), Benjamin Cardin (D-3), and Elijah E. Cummings (D-7). They expressed "grave concern over the State of Maryland's plan to allow black bear hunting to begin…for the first time in half a century."

The DNR claim that the hunt was intended to address conflicts between humans and bears further unraveled when The HSUS and The Fund for Animals offered a lump sum of $75,000 to the DNR. The funds would have reimbursed farmers for crop damage, on the condition that the hunt be cancelled.

The state refused the offer, thumbed its nose at the General Assembly and Maryland citizens, and 20 black bears became hunting trophies.

Maryland's 2005 Hunt

The 2005 hunt dispelled any doubts that the renewal of Maryland's hunting of black bears sits squarely in the interest of trophy hunters, not with the public welfare of Maryland's citizens. 

Without conducting any long-term analysis on the effect of the 2004 hunt on Maryland's black bear population, the DNR increased the hunt quota of black bears from 20 in 2004 to 40-55 in 2005. And during a four-day hunt in Garrett and Allegany Counties in late October, 40 black bears died. The DNR's last known population estimate stated that there were 266 to 437 bears in the state. An estimated 368 bear hunters participated in this year's hunt, meaning that potentially more hunters than bears roamed the woods.

In the DNR's statement about the quota increase, Wildlife & Heritage Service Director Paul A. Peditto explained that their population models showed that the population could sustain an increased hunt. What Peditto and the statement failed to mention was any scientific need to increase the number of bears killed in order to protect the state's citizens.

The DNR noted that only six of the bears killed in the October hunt year had been identified as nuisance bears, meaning that 85%—the vast majority—of the bears killed posed no threat. Even if the DNR truly intended the hunt as means to reduce negative bear interactions with people, a random bear hunt is no more likely to reduce bear incursions than shooting people at random on the street would reduce urban crime.

"Maryland citizens want real solutions to bear problems, not unrestrained cruelty for trophies," said Michael Markarian, executive vice president of The HSUS.

The use of non-lethal aversive conditioning and bear-proof garbage cans, as well as implementing some simple precautions are proven, effective methods of bear control and would do far more to reduce conflicts than a hunt.

What You Can Do

On October 20, Markarian wrote to Maryland's governor, asking him to respect the will of Maryland's citizens and to cancel the hunt. Add your voice to Markarian's and help stop another unnecessary hunt.

Please contact Gov. Ehrlich and ask him to use non-lethal problem solving with Maryland's black bears, rather than declaring open season on this vulnerable species. 

The Honorable Robert L. Ehrlich, Jr.
Office of the Governor
100 State Circle
Annapolis, MD 21401

Phone: (410) 974-3901
Fax: (410) 974-3275
e-mail: http://www.gov.state.md.us/mail/

Maryland residents: Click here to find your state lawmakers. Then urge them to pass legislation prohibiting the bear hunt.

See the Video

The Maryland Bear Hunt Debate

Wayne Pacelle on the MD Bear Hunt

Bear Baiting

Bear Hounding

Related Links

Governor Bears Forward with Hunt Despite Panel's Vote Against It

Maryland Activists Present the Bear Facts to Governor Ehrlich

Maryland Puts Its Stamp on Bear Protection

Solving Problems with Black Bears

New Jersey's Bear Hunt Will Provide More Trophies than Protections to the Public