Bear Baiting - Sample Letter to Your Legislator #5

(Remember to edit this letter and make it your own. Letters make a bigger impact on legislators if they are not identical to others.)

[Date]

Dear [Legislator’s Name],

I am writing to encourage you to take action against an unsporting practice that is allowed to take place in our woods each and every hunting season: bear baiting. 

Bear baiting is exactly what it sounds like. Hunters haul pounds and pounds of garbage – old pizza, donuts and other sweets, rotting meat, and other smelly foods – in the forest and set up a bait station to attract bears. The hunter then lies in wait in a nearby tree stand, waiting for the bear to pick up the scent and come looking for a free meal. 

When the bear approaches, the hunter shoots her while she eats her last meal.

Aside from the obvious ethical problems involved in bear baiting, and complete lack of a fair chase ethic, the practice encourages negative interactions between people and bears. 

The National Park Service, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and others publish materials warning individuals to not feed the bears. Bears who become accustomed to human food, such as small bears deemed unworthy to grace a hunter’s trophy room and allowed to feed at the bait station the entire season, often seek out similar foods after the bait is removed. 

When searching for more stale pizza and jelly donuts bears venture into our neighborhoods, breaking into trashcans, vehicles and sometimes even our homes. Bears who become “nuisance” animals often must be relocated or destroyed. 

Bear baiting in an unnecessary practice catering to the lazy hunter who doesn’t want to have to “hunt” an animal. It should be banned immediately.

Thank you for your time and for your attention on this important issue.  

Sincerely,

[Name]
[Address]