OTTAWA – The issue of bear baiting, which is familiar to Maine hunters and voters, is being raised by a humanitarian group in Canada.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals called on Prime Minister Stephen Harper to ban bear baiting after it conducted an investigation into what it calls a “cowardly and extremely cruel practice.”

PETA released graphic video showing baiting, shooting and skinning of bears by hunters, including a mother whose cub was orphaned and left to die.

Bear baiting hunters take advantage of bears’ keen sense of smell by luring them to piles of food, including doughnuts and pizza.

PETA says the bears are usually shot multiple times before they die or they escape with wounds and die a slow death from blood loss, dehydration, starvation, gangrene or other infections. The group says deer and moose baiting are banned already, along with migratory waterfowl baiting.

Bear baiting is illegal in British Columbia and in much of the United States and has been condemned by numerous hunting and conservation groups as cruel and unsportsmanlike.

In 2004, voters in Maine rejected a citizen-initiated proposal to outlaw bear baiting, trapping and hunting bears with hounds. The state’s game department later outlawed the use of steel-jawed bear traps, which limited trappers to snare-type foothold traps or large cages that leave the animals unharmed.

Bear hunting issues returned to the Maine State House in 2007 when a bill to abolish the open season on bear trapping was introduced. The bill later was rejected by lawmakers.