Westerners don’t hunt bears with bait

As a first-time visitor to Maine, I have enjoyed your splendid autumn weather and the rugged and rocky coastline.

However, if what I read in your newspaper is correct, your bear hunters are wrong. Providing bears a treat (bait) in order to shoot them is not in a westerner’s vocabulary on hunting. Your hunters need to come out to Idaho, Montana, or Washington to learn how to hunt bear while giving the animal a sporting chance.

Bruce McCartney

Puyallup, Washington

Banquet deserved coverage from media

It never fails to amaze and disgust me how the news media covers and creates news. If two people get together on a street corner carrying a protest sign, the media provides live coverage and three days of their “resident experts” explanation of the event. Newspapers provide space above the fold on the front page.

But, have nearly 1,000 honest, hard-working Maine resident sports people, hunters, trappers, and guides gather to try to protect their jobs, rights, traditions, and sport and there is no coverage.

That happened on Sept. 18 at the Augusta Civic Center. Almost 1,000 Maine residents paid to attend a banquet to raise money to fight the referendum to ban hunting bears over bait or with hounds.

If you don’t know what the referendum is, it’s out-of-state interest being backed by a few Maine residents trying to stop bear hunting in the state. Make no mistake, this is just the beginning to stop all hunting and fishing and other “blood sports” in Maine and the United States.

It was a costly affair, really out of reach for most Mainers. Big money, for most of us, who attended. Money we were forced to spend to protect our sports, traditions, and jobs. We were forced by the big, out-of-state, anti-hunting groups financing a few Maine residents, hell bent to end all hunting.

If this ill-conceived referendum passes, many Mainers will lose their jobs, homes, and way of life. It will have a widespread financial impact on all of Maine.

The bears will suffer. We have the best bear biologists in the country. The bear population is being properly managed by knowledgeable people, with the facts, not people voting on emotion. Facts are on our side. For safety, for science, vote no on Question 2.

Don Loncto

Master Guide

Ellsworth

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