Now There is a “Save the Bears”
Organization – To No Avail

Opening day of the 2005 hunting season for black bears in Pennsylvania was a historic event:  More than 2000 (actually 2,026) bears were recorded at check stations throughout the wooded state, where the harvest was the largest ever recorded on the opening day of the Pennsylvania season. 

This occurred in spite of the efforts of a new organization to “save” the bears from hunters. 

Fred J. Aun reported in the Tuesday, November 22 Star-Ledger that Win Animal Rights, (or WAR) is recruiting people who shall be trained in a WAR boot camp to enable them to successfully go out in the woods and keep bears safe from hunters, all without committing the crime of hunter harassment.  Their plan is to commit these acts in New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania.  Aun calls them the “Bear Guerillas”.  The organization has adopted a “military motif” and is training recruits in hunt sabotage techniques. 

We don’t know how many foolish people have signed up for this dangerous idea.  It’s not that hunters would intentionally shoot at such people.  It is dangerous because the hunt saboteurs may unwittingly put themselves in the line of fire in an area where bears are common in the woods, and people are not.  Further, why would any bear take safety advice from some flea brained human who explains that he/she only wants it to go and hide somewhere?  By hiking about and singing, yelling and banging on tins, hunt saboteurs are more successful at making foolish nuisances of themselves than they are at “saving” bears or any other game.  The Pennsylvania opening day record is proof enough of this.

We note that blatant hunt sabotage is called “hunter harassment” in many states, where such activity is now illegal, and for good reason.  Bears and deer must be kept at manageable populations, which are defined as those at which a minimum of human/animal conflicts are observed and property and crop damage are also kept to tolerable levels.