Submitted by Sherry Wernicke, Riverside
Once again there is a bill in the CT legislature to hunt bears, HB 7051. It’s time to stop pretending that hunting bears will solve human-bear conflicts or make people safer; it will not.
The best available science tells us that reducing conflicts with bears comes from responsible human behavior, not randomly killing them. Bear biologists have proven that securing garbage, protecting farm animals, and removing bird feeders work. A new study even shows that hunting bears can actually make conflicts worse.
Instead of relying on outdated ideas, we need real solutions backed by science. And the Legislature should fund local communities to help educate and enforce common sense solutions to living with bears, including using bear-resistant trash cans.
Bears regulate their own populations naturally. If a pregnant female doesn’t get sufficient calories before she dens for the winter, her body will reabsorb her embryos. Bears face many mortality factors that keep populations in check. Trophy hunting only adds unnecessary deaths to an already small population.
On top of that, the state’s Department of Energy and Environmental Protection has a policy to kill orphaned bear cubs.
Killing bears will NOT solve human-bear conflicts. Instead, Connecticut lawmakers need to invest in real conflict-reduction programs that have been proven to work.
Please contact your state rep and senator and them to OPPOSE HB 7051 and any similar bill, which are just sneaky ways to institute a trophy hunt. Thank you.
Sherry Wernicke
Riverside, CT