"Nation's favourite bear shot by hunter"

[norseman]

Mother Earth gave us intelligence to protect the planet and all life forms. We have failed at the job and She would be within Her rights to "sack" us. I really despise my own species at times

Originally Posted by norseman

News today.

A black bear, named Hope, whose birth was broadcast over the internet has been shot by a hunter quoted as saying "I would not have shot the animal if I had known it was her".
SO, shooting a harmless, un-named bear is OK !

Hope's birth was watched by thousands online, while 500 US schools have been following Hope, her mother Lily, and new cub,Faith, on the Bear Centre's website.

Any comments ?

Here's mine. Hunters are sick, sadistic individuals ! Gun Laws ? - time for a rethink.

My dear friend Norseman,

I am sickened by this event and reminded of the words to a song on an old John Denver album...

"And you tell me the battles are over, and you say the war is all done..
Go tell it to those, with the wind in their nose,
Who run from the sound of the gun.
And write it on the walls of the great whaling ships,
Or on ice flows where conscience is tossed.
With the wild in their eyes, it is they who must die,
And it's we who must measure the cost."

There are other equally gut-wrenching and pertinent verses, but you catch my drift.....

This sort of thing makes me feel so sad :-(

Originally Posted by shandy61

Mattie
Just because it is legal does NOT make it right

I didn't opine about about whether I viewed it as right/wrong.

I'm aware that being legal isn't necessarily right/wrong.

Has it been confirmed yet that this bear was shot??? All the news reports I’ve found say the bear is missing. I assume this means movement hasn’t been seen w/ the tracking collar. That it hasn’t been tracked doesn’t confirm it was shot by a hunter. It could have died from natural means. The area has had drought conditions & wildfires.

This seems to be confirmation, but I'm hard pressed to understand how the hunter is supposed to discern that the bear is a research bear as opposed to another female bear the same age who hasn't been popularized if is it isn't collared or marked in some way. This bear's mother was collared, but it wasn't. It is likely they couldn't use a collar on a growing bear as it might get too small quickly as the bear grew, but they could possibly use some sort of other device that would mark them so hunters could avoid them.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/nation...m2K_story.html

There are allot of US hunters who shoot all types of game for food, not just the thrill of killing an animal.
http://www.google.com/search?client=...UTF-8&oe=UTF-8

Many in the US also catch fish for their personal food. Probably other countries as well.