Bear baiting ads depict ‘unsettling’ images

As predicted, Maine Citizens for Fair Bear Hunting, the group supporting a referendum to end bear trapping, shooting over bait and hunting with dogs, Wednesday took its campaign to TV with the release of a video depicting the sort of hunts the group seeks to ban.

“We think that citizens need to know what happens out in the Maine woods, and how cruel and unsportsmanlike it really is,” Bob Fisk, spokesman for the group said.

One scene depicts a bear shot at close range after being caught in a leghold trap. Others show bears being shot while feeding and being chased by dogs, Fisk said, describing the video by telephone Wednesday afternoon

“It may be a little unsettling, but that’s the reality,” he said.

Edie Leary, spokeswoman for Maine’s Fish and Wildlife Conservation Council, the group opposing the referendum, had a different interpretation.

“They’re obviously going for people’s emotions,” she said when she heard of the video. “We’ve been expecting them to try to scare people.”

Most of the footage was obtained directly from hunters, who turned over their videos of hunts after deciding to support the referendum, Fisk said.

“The vast majority of it was filmed in Maine,” he said.

A few of the hounding scenes, however, were obtained from groups that worked on a similar effort to ban baiting and hounding in Oregon, Fisk said.

Leary, who has not seen this video but has seen footage of hounding used by the Humane Society of the United States in Oregon, raised concerns that it may not accurately depict a Maine hunt. In Oregon as many as seven or eight dogs were used, while in Maine, the law restricts a hunter to four, she said.

Overall, she worries the video may depict extreme, even illegal situations rather than a typical hunt.

“An isolated incident doesn’t justify a statewide ban on the three most effective methods we have to control bear,” Leary said.

Right now, the video is being made available only to the media and to campaign staffers and volunteers, who will use it in their lobbying efforts.

Whether this same footage will appear in campaign advertising later this fall hasn’t been decided, Fisk said.

Wednesday, many of the state’s print and TV media outlets were invited to a showing of the video at the group’s Falmouth headquarters.

At least one person, however, was turned away, a producer from Ursus Productions in Waterville, the company that produces outdoor shows including Wildfire, The Maine Outdoorsman and Northeast Journal, for a number of TV stations in both the Portland and Bangor markets.

Maine Citizens for Fair Bear Hunting also released a 12-page publication presenting its views Wednesday. The brochure is seen by the groups as an educational tool to be used by pro-referendum volunteers, as well as the beginning of the group’s statewide public outreach and fund-raising campaign.

Titled “The Bear Facts,” the publication is available by contacting Maine Citizens for Fair Bear Hunting at 781-5155.