No one expects the bear baiting ban to win a majority of Aroostook County voters, but it won’t be a blowout if Dena Winslow has anything to say about it.

Earlier this summer, the Presque Isle resident packed up Benny the bear, a 12-foot-high inflatable conversation piece, and brought her message about hunting ethics to the Northern Maine Fair.

Initially, Winslow’s teenage sons were worried about their mom voicing her unpopular position so publicly. But after a few days at the fairgrounds, the family realized that those who expect anger and intimidation from the hunting community aren’t giving rural people enough credit.

Northern Mainers are going to give everyone a big surprise come Nov. 2, said several Aroostook County residents who support the proposed ban on bear trapping and hunting with bait and dogs.

“I talked to a lot of folks who do this, who actually bait bears, and an overwhelming number of people said to me, ‘I hope this passes,'” Winslow said.

Caribou native Dr. Ogden Small has been hunting since he was a boy and would defend his right to stalk birds, deer and bear “100 percent.” But the optometrist is also a proud member of Hunters for Fair Bear Hunting, a group advocating for the referendum. Baiting and chasing bears with hounds just isn’t the sort of hunting that he was raised with, Small said, telling stories of his father-in-law hunting bruins the old-fashioned way – on foot.

“He shot many bears, but he put his boots on and took his rifle and he shot them in the oat fields and on the beech ridges,” Small said. “I think we still have real hunters out there.”

Albert Van Scooter, a Washburn resident who has hunted for bears with and without bait, agrees that bear hunting could survive if Question 2 passes.

“It wouldn’t stop me a bit. I’d watch a through-way. I’ve seen bear tracks. I’d just take my time and be patient,” he said.

Most licensed Maine Guides are good people who promote ethical hunting. But a few irresponsible hunters have given the sport a black eye – trespassing, shooting cubs and allowing their hounds to run wild, he said.

That’s why Van Scooter is supporting the referendum even though he believes that with a little reform and stricter enforcement, baiting could be done ethically.

“You make your bed, you have to lie in it,” he said. “There’s a lot of reason for [the referendum] to pass.”

Winslow doesn’t hunt, but with a husband and sons who do, she is hardly an animal activist and has never before been involved in a campaign like this. Teaching history at the University of Maine at Presque Isle and flying hot-air balloons in her free time don’t leave her much time for politicking. Yet this summer, when she started hearing “wild stories” about bear attacks, she decided to get involved.

“I said, holy smoke, they’re lying to the public. Because they have nothing accurate to stand on, they’re making up things,” she said. “That whole mythology that bears are going to eat your pets and your children …” Winslow shook her head.

Small served as a member of the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife commissioner’s advisory council from 1988 to 1995, helping the department make decisions about wildlife management. He, too, called the state’s predictions about a surge in the bear population unrealistic. Any increase in the bear population would happen slowly, giving state wildlife experts time to adapt.

“It’s not going to mushroom in a year or two,” Small said. “I firmly believe that our biologists would find a way to control the population.”

Like most northern Mainers, Small has friends who are fighting to defeat the referendum, and he respects their right to do so. But keeping quiet about something that he believes is wrong was never an option, the doctor said.

“When I support something, I stick my neck out,” he said. “I can’t defend [these methods] to my nonhunting friends … there’s no way to defend them.”