anti-hunters aid wounded bear

[Cosmoline]

How does anyone know it was a HUNTER who wounded the bear? Could have been anyone.

One things for sure, feeding it is a receipe for disaster, Treadwell style. I live in Alaska, and I'm a lot more nervous around "friendly" black bear than around the big brown guys.

 

[clubsoda22]

For those who say we're monday morning quarterbacking, realize that in new jersey rifle hunting is illegal, so the hunter had to be pretty close. They don't allow rifles because jersey is complately flat. Also, how fast could the bear get away that had been shot in the leg? You find the bear, and if it has wondered onto private property you pick up your cell phone, call the police and wait. The police will show up and either finish the job themselves or authorize you to.

 

[HBK]

Maybe they'll find out the hard way that bears aren't big cuddly stuffed animals...without proper shot placement.

 

[hops]

If the animal rights folks really wanted to support the bear, they would have given it arms, like a .50 cal M2. Give the poor bear a real fighting chance. After all, the 2nd is all about the right to arm bears.

 

[James Bondrock]

Well, that's wonderful.

The bear "responded very well to medicine mixed with peanut butter, high-fat muffins and maple syrup," she said.

Bears that have become accustomed to human food are some of the most dangerous.

 

[c_yeager]

Shelters that make it their buisiness to help injured wild animals and reintegrate them into nature take GREAT pains not to have too much contact between the animal and humans. This is as much for the animal as it is for the people. Aggressive animals in particular do not need to see humans as being lower on the food chain than they are. I seriously doubt that these idiots have the expertise to properly care for this manner in a way that allows it to return to nature properly. It could be a very nasty situation just waiting to happen.

 

[goon]

OK, granted, messing with a wounded bear isn't the brightest thing that you could do.
This mess is the hunter's fault. Had he put the bullet where it should have gone that animal wouldn't have had to wander around wounded and stumble into these people.
Whether you like it or not, they were trying to do something good. It may not have been the smartest thing to do and there may now be complications, but they were just trying to help an animal.
I would have tried to help it too. I would have called the local Game Comission authorities and let them handle it though.

 

[clubsoda22]

seems goon's got the right idea too.

 

[stevelyn]

You've been reading the LawDog files again haven't you?

Uhmm...........a little bit. Truth is huggers that become protein snacks for local wildlife are worth lots of cheap enterainment out here.

 

[Blackcloud6]

Angi Metler, who is director of the New Jersey Animal Rights Alliance, told the newspaper. "When did things stop making sense?"

No, Angi, you don't make sense, obey the dadburned law and get the proper license!

 

[Jeff Pinardi]

jimpeel....nice touch with the "Idaho Grizzly Notice".............I'm fightin' back the tears.......

happy shootin' Jeff P.

 

[Abenaki]

"Also, how fast could the bear get away that had been shot in the leg? You find the bear, and if it has wondered onto private property you pick up your cell phone, call the police and wait. The police will show up and either finish the job themselves or authorize you to."

Clubsoda22......This is no flame, just the truth.

A bear on 3 leggs is just as fast as a bear on 4. How fast can a wounded bear be? That bear could cover a hundred yards in some of the thickest brush and timber before you could get your act together enough to respond!

With out hounds to help, it is almost impossible to track a bear in the woods.

Abenaki.......an old bear hunter.

 

[Art Eatman]

clubsoda22 said, "You find the bear."

That's all there is to it?

Question: Have you ever tried to "find" a slightly wounded animal?

I worked at tracking a crippled buck that some guy had shot in the lower right hind leg--broke it. That buck never quit moving up a mountain. After some two miles, he topped out. Since he was going uphill faster than I was, I figured he could go downhill even better. I figured his name was Lion Bait, and gave up. I was just glad that it was downhill to hunt camp, four miles off...

Right wrong or indifferent, every hunter eventually has a bad-hit story. Every hunter eventually has a "couldn't find it" story. It's kinda like Andretti's comment about Indy drivers: "There are two kinds; those who have hit the wall, and those who will hit the wall."

BTDT,

Art

 

[nygunguy]

I've been at this huntin' stuff for almost 40 years and I have more than one couldn't find it experience. It sometimes amazes me how far a whitetail can go with a .50 Caliber hole in what I thought was the perfect spot.

I'll bet that the law will start making good sense to Ms. Metler as soon as that bear gets hungry again. The media just irks me to no end at times. Why couldn't they have put in a blurb about what to do with wild animals and why the laws is as it is? :banghead:

 

[Horsesense]

Who's to say that it wasn't hit by a car (most likely an evil SUV) or that a pack of dogs didn’t get hold of it?

 

[PATH]

Since the bears wound has not been conclusively determined to have come from a hunter why are we assuming it is?

In any case it should be noted that some animals that have been hit make good on not being found. It has happened to me! I have been led on a merry chase and found myself several miles from camp and no closer to getting off a second shot. So before anyone talks about the cruel and evil hunter try walking several miles in his shoes!

 

[c_yeager]

Have they made bear hunting with hounds illegal in Jersey? I know they did just that here in Washington. It didnt seem like a great idea then and it still doest.

 

[birddog]

Umm.

I don't support slob hunters, or guys that call good hunters slob hunters. I've bear hunted for 10 years, killed 2. I've also participated in tracking several wounded bears and am here to tell you that, if you thought whitetails were tough, bears are tougher. To top it off, bears' long fur and thick fat layer often prevent a good bleedout, even with an excellent shot. With a marginal shot, well....it's not out of the question that this bear was nearly untrackable, though it was bleeding down the tree, apparently.

As for the shot itself? Well, I am a good shot, and practice hard with my bow and firearms, and I've blown some shots on game and placed some bullets where I wished I hadn't. It comes with the territory, unfortunately.

Just my .02.

Joel

 

[H&Hhunter]

Have they made bear hunting with hounds illegal in Jersey? I know they did just that here in Washington. It didnt seem like a great idea then and it still doest.

C-Yeager.

What wasn't a good idea stopping bear hunting with hounds? Or using hounds to hunt bears?

AS far as these guys who are claiming that a tragic crime took place because a hunter alegedly wounded a bear and then didn't find it. I've only got one thing to say. Either you've never hunted or you haven't hunted very much or the only hunting you've done has been in a zoo. Because in the real world sometimes wounded critters get away. And sometimes shots go bad and you wound as opposed to making a clean kill. PERIOD.

And even a pack of hounds can't always find a wounded bear. Been there done that.

 

[c_yeager]

My possition is that if your going to allow bear hunting in the first place. Why make it harder to find a wounded animal when it happens? I dont think its going to matter much to the bear wether or not you use hounds in the end. Except that it will limit its suffering. In short, using hounds to hunt bears = good.

 

[Highland Ranger]

People taking care of an injured animal isn't a bad thing, no matter their political orientation.

The state requiring a license to take care of an injured animal is a little intrusive dont you think?

You missed the point; it's not illegal to help an injured animal, it's illegal to feed a bear. Just as it is in many other places and for the same reason - not good to have large carnivores associating humans with food.

 

[Art Eatman]

c_yeager: Two ways of hunting with dogs: The first is to actually use to dogs to flush/chase game toward a hunter. The other is limited to using a dog to trail a wounded animal.

The former is not legal in most places, nowadays. The latter is commonly legal and even encouraged in order to prevent the waste of a game animal. A major problem is that few hunters have or have access to a dog with which to trail...

, Art

 

[meathammer]

In both Minnesota and Wisconsin, you can follow a wounded animal onto posted land. It seems that this law works and makes sense -- it might be worth writing your local congress critter with your story pytron.

Sorry, not true. Hunting regulations in Wisconsin state that you must make every reasonable effort to retrieve wounded game but it is ILLEGAL to walk on to private property without getting permission first.

This makes sense to me and is just being courteous. Where I hunt, most landowners would probably even help you track the animal.

It is amazing what some animals can endure. I never hunted bears, but years ago I shot a very large doe, she bolted, and I waited about 30 minutes and proceeded to track her. Shot was from no more than 50 yds., broadside. Perfect.

I found blood on both sides of her tracks, followed the blood a little further and then nothing!

It started to get dark, so I got my Dad and brought some lanterns. We went to the last point of blood and started looking. No more blood!

So we went in the general direction the deer was going and then we found her, probably 150 yds. from where I shot her. The bullet (.30-06) went clean through both lungs (lungs were demolished) and exited. This doe was so fat from the feeding on the nearby corn field that her fat had plugged up the wound!

Some animals just don't realize they're dead I guess!
(Sorry about the length of my post.)

 

[inGobwetrust]

"When did things stop making sense?"

That would have been right around the time Bill Clinton was sworn in.

 

[Shaughn Leayme]

Some of the comments here on hunting make me wonder about people.

In a perfect world, every shot is a 10X and an instant kill

Targets and game animals present themselves for perfect no error involved shooting.

The light doesn't go, the wind doesn't blow, the weather is perfect, no snow,rain, or boiling heat, weapons don't missfire and bullets/arrows are not deflected by an unseen branch.

The Game animal fall over dead right there, or if it runs it does so towards your vehicle and then falls over dead.

If you have to track the animal, it will be sure to leave a line of flagging tape and paint arrows on tree's so following it will be easy and it won't find the deepest, thickest, wettest part of the swamp to hide in or won't run up the side of a mountain to fall off a crag and land on a ledge that one has to rappel down to to recover.

All hunting area's are perfectly flat and you can see tommorrow from where you are standing.

Get real people.

I have hunted for over 25 years, I learned to track animals before my dad would even consider allowing me to shoot one (not that he neglected my instruction on that score) I have hunted deer, moose, elk, bear (black and brown) wolves where legal and have spent many a winter trapping.

No matter how GOOD you are, you are interacting with a variable (a wild animal) and while you may have lined up the perfect shot, sometimes the variable decides, for whatever reason, that now is the time to get out of here and very often, it is done with no visible indication to the hunter and spoil that perfect shot placement. Sometimes they refuse to die and while they have absorbed a massive amount of damage, they get away and thru a variety of factors are lost.

Sort of like some people who absorb an unbelievable amount of punishment and still kill,wound,hurt thier attacker (that's another story and thread)

Hunting has no absolutes or garauntee's.

I have tracked animals that were hit solidly, but if one went by the indications on the trail, the animal showed no signs of it, I tracked them as much by getting into the head of the animal as I did by sign and terrain and without bragging I am good at it, but I still have lost animals.

So, before you condem someone, with only a smidgen of information with no hard facts, THINK.