Posted on 06/12/2003 12:32:27 PM PDT by Dan from Michigan
Bill to Ban Bear Baiting Provokes Anger
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By FREDERIC J. FROMMER, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON - An Alaska congressman angrily denounced a colleague Thursday for introducing a bill that would ban bear baiting on federal lands.
"I wish I had my native people in here right now," Rep. Don Young (news, bio, voting record), R-Alaska, told the bill's sponsor, Rep. Jim Moran, D-Va., at a hearing. "You'd walk out of here with no head on."
Young's comments came at the end of a testy exchange over the bill, which would extend the bear baiting ban on federal lands to the nine states that allow it, including Alaska.
Moran had argued that bear baiting, which involves leaving anything from doughnuts to pizza out while hunters lie in wait, was unsportsmanlike.
"You're trying to legislate what's right for my people," Young told Moran. "You don't know anything about Alaska. ... You're messing with my people, and that's the wrong thing to do."
Moran stressed that the bill applies only to federal lands.
"My constituents do, through their taxes, provide means to purchase and maintain that federal land," he said.
"Shooting a bear in the back while it's head is stuffed in garbage to feed does not constitute a fair sport," Moran told the House Resources subcommittee on fisheries conservation, wildlife and oceans.
But Rep. Collin Peterson (news, bio, voting record), D-Minn., testified that the bear population would be difficult to control in his state without baiting, which is the primary means of bear hunting in states that allow it.
"It will take away our management tool," he said.
Peterson said that without baiting, problems with bears getting into neighborhoods and rummaging through people's garbage would increase.
But Moran argued that baiting contributes to those problems, by acclimating bears to human food and making them more likely to approach people and homes.
The bill's other sponsor, Rep. Elton Gallegly (news, bio, voting record), R-Calif., said federal policy needs to be more consistent. He noted that while the National Park Service bans feeding of bears, the Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management (news - web sites) defer to state authorities on the matter.
"If it is wrong and reckless to feed bears in parks, it is also wrong to do so in national forests and on BLM lands," he said.
Matt Hogan, deputy director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, said the Bush administration opposes the bill.
"Without a wide array of management tools at their disposal, state managers may experience an increase in dangerous interactions between people and bears," he said.
Besides Alaska and Minnesota, the states that allow bear baiting are Maine, New Hampshire, Michigan, Wisconsin, Wyoming, Utah and Idaho.
Kudo's to Bush as well for saying no deals on this.
Aw, c'mon...give him an arrow, too.
Call me crazy, but it seems that getting capped for "taking the bait" would make it rather difficult for a bear to take a liking to human food...
Bear Tranquilized In Fairfax County
They're already next door.
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