CONCORD, N.H. — Fish and Game officials are preparing to defend the state’s bear hunting regulations, anticipating lawmakers again will push to ban baiting and use of dogs to track the bruins.
“We will support the traditional hunting methods, at least for the time being,” said Eric Orff, Fish and Game bear biologist. “We don’t figure there is currently a need to change any regulations.”
For the past few years, lawmakers have tried but failed to outlaw baiting, using dogs and other hunting methods wildlife advocates have called cruel and unsportsmanlike.
Baiting and treeing bears with trained dogs are efficient ways of maintaining a healthy bear population because it lets hunters be more selective, giving them more time to select large males over females and young bears, Orff said.
“From a biological sense, that’s the way to go,” he said. “But socially, it’s a hard sell.”
With five states, including neighboring Massachusetts, successfully banning these practices by referendum in November, New Hampshire advocates are optimistic about changing state regulations this legislative session, said Sen. Burt Cohen, D-New Castle, who is chairman of the Senate Fish and Game Committee.
“There seems to be a ground- swell of support for these measures across the country and hopefully some of that will spill over to New Hampshire,” said Cohen, who will introduce a bill to ban bear baiting this legislative session.
“These hunting practices are distinctly unsportsmanlike and I would think most hunters would support the changes,” he said.
Hunters took 151 bear during a shortened season that went from Sept. 1 to Nov. 1. The season was scaled down from three months to two because 428 bears were killed by hunters last year — an unusually large number, according to Orff.
The statewide bear population is estimated at 2,500, with more than 10,000 bear-hunting permits issued last year, Orff said.
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