Click here to watch video of typical bear hunt with hounds. Warning: video is disturbing, graphic.


SACRAMENTO - Today, Big Wildlife blasted the California Department of Fish and Game (CDFG) for proposing to dramatically expand bear hunting across the state. The wildlife advocacy group said a Draft Environmental Document (DED) released by CDFG yesterday and obtained by Big Wildlife included a number of agency recommendations that were "very bad news for bears."

For instance, the CDFG proposes to: increase the hunt quota from 1,700 to 2,500 bears or eliminate a cap altogether, expand hunting into other areas of the state, including San Luis Obispo county, and permit use of global positioning system (GPS) collars and treeing switches on dogs while bear hunting, among other changes. The CDFG will submit its proposals to the California Fish and Game Commission (CFGC) at the commission's February 4 meeting in Sacramento. The agency is accepting public comments on the DED through March 13, 2010.

"The agency's plans to expand bear hunting across California fly in the face of good science and public opinion," said Brian Vincent, Communications Director with Big Wildlife. "Bears are facing increasing threats from habitat destruction, poaching, expanded trophy hunting, and conflicts with people as development encroaches into bear territory. Now is the time to ban the hunting of bears and provide rigorous safeguards for these animals."

At next week's CFG Commission meeting, Big Wildlife will urge the Commission to ban bear hunting because:

Trophy hunting puts additional pressures on bears, who face a host of increasing threats from poaching, habitat fragmentation and destruction, human encroachment into wildlife areas, aggressive government lethal control programs, and climate change.
 
State wildlife officials have failed to assess the impacts of poaching. Illegal killing of bears has increased globally, fueled by a booming international market, for bear parts, especially bear gallbladders used in traditional Asian medicine and bear paws, considered a delicacy in soup. Bear gallbladders can go for $5,000 a pound, an enticing price that has spurred bear poaching in California. According to a March 29, 2009 report in the Sacramento Bee, poaching of wildlife in general has become epidemic in the state. The paper reported, "The rise in extreme poaching matches that of poaching overall. Violations rose from 6,538 in 2003 to 17,840 in 2007...California in 2008 had fewer than 200 active-duty fish and game wardens patrolling the state's 100 million acres." The illegal sale of California wildlife and wildlife parts generates an estimated $100 million a year, second only to the illegal drug trade, according to CDFG officials. Big Wildlife also said legal hunting provides cover for "piggy-back poaching," especially when so few game wardens are available to monitor hunting activities. The wildlife organization said it made no sense to permit bear hunting when law enforcement capabilities are so crippled.

Trophy hunting ignores the ecological value of bears. Apex species, such as bears, cougars, and wolves, play critical roles in maintaining ecosystems. Black bears often scavenge for food, helping to recycle carrion. Bears also transport berry seeds. Along salmon spawning streams, bear scat and the remains of fish carried into the woods contribute to the long-term nutrient cycle in old-growth forest. Even cambium feeding by bears, which sometimes kills trees, creates widely scattered snags that benefit other species of wildlife.
 
The state has failed to assess the impacts of annual increases in bears killed by hunters. According to CDFG data, the number of bears killed legally by hunters has steadily increased well beyond the agency's own 1,700 annual season limit. Yet, the CDFG has yet to adequately analyze how these dramatic increases have affected state and local bear populations, behavior, social structure, reproduction, and cubs.
 
Hunting black bears is cruel, unethical, and environmentally harmful. In California, bears can be legally chased by hounds, treed, then shot by hunters. Hounds have been known to pursue bears with cubs, increasing the risk that cubs could be separated from their mothers, then orphaned. It is not uncommon for hounds to maim bears, especially cubs, and even more common for bears to maim or kill dogs. In addition, hounds may pursue non-targeted animals, including imperiled species, putting additional stress on those species. Bears can also be killed with bow and arrow, which studies reveal produce an unacceptably high wounding rate.

"Bear hunting is blood sport. And permitting hunters to use hounds to chase bears to exhaustion is glorified dog fighting that pits hounds against bears. Bear hunting is nothing more than legalized cruelty,"said Vincent.


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