Abandon the spring bear hunt... again!

The Spring Bear Hunt was cancelled in 1999 when the previous Conservative government recognized that it leads to black bear cubs being orphaned when their mothers are accidentally killed.

Now, after a pilot spring bear hunt initiated by the Liberals, Ford's Conservatives want to bring it back in full force. Tell them that there is NO acceptable number of bear cubs being orphaned due to hunter misidentification.

Hunters will still be able to bait bears with junk food and garbage all summer long leading up to the fall hunt, which will remain unchanged. You can take this opportunity to ...

The Spring Bear Hunt was cancelled in 1999 when the previous Conservative government recognized that it leads to black bear cubs being orphaned when their mothers are accidentally killed.

Now, after a pilot spring bear hunt initiated by the Liberals, Ford's Conservatives want to bring it back in full force. Tell them that there is NO acceptable number of bear cubs being orphaned due to hunter misidentification.

Hunters will still be able to bait bears with junk food and garbage all summer long leading up to the fall hunt, which will remain unchanged. You can take this opportunity to remind the Ontario government that bear baiting is unethical and should not be allowed to occur within 500m of any trails or roads.

Bear hunters advocate for their killing as a tool to reduce human-bear conflicts even though the ministry's own advisory committee found that hunting doesn't have that effect. With a fall hunt already allowed, there is no justifiable reason to let bears be killed for 60 days in the spring as well.

Read the full proposal here.

Photos: Mike J. McIntosh

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Regulations that currently allow hunters to shoot females if they are not accompanied by their cubs results in the orphaning of bear cubs at their most vulnerable stage in life. Surely no one can support such legislation when bear experts know that such young cubs are not often with females while they forage, and therefore within proximity to hunters making the decision to shoot.

In 1999, the Conservative government cancelled the spring bear hunt in recognition that we can't put a price on any number of cubs that starve or die of exposure after being orphaned due to government regulations. Indeed, protecting wildlife should be at the heart of any management plan or action.

Please end the spring bear hunt, put an immediate moratorium on any hunting in declining populations such as Saugeen-Bruce Peninsula, and focus on reducing human-bear conflicts by investing in coexistence education. Please conduct a study to determine whether baiting impacts human-bear conflicts. Ontarians and tourists can safely share the landscape with black bears and other carnivores; we only need to make sure we have the resources to teach them how.

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