BigDog Speaks

I watched a very interesting program on bears and "problem bears". It seems the tourist, in their typical ignorance, are feeding bears. The feeding is no doubt their way to connect with wildlife or get a better picture which is all well and good, EXCEPT that they are contributing to the development of a "problem bear". What IS a problem bear? A bear that associates people with food. Can you see the "problem" now?

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OK, we have tourist doing the normal stupid tourist stuff like feeding the bears. The bears associate people with food and become aggressive or something similar and have to be trapped. SOME of these bears will be relocated to some remote place and all will be well. Others, missing the free feed they had become accustomed to, will return to the same area and begin again. THESE bears will be euthanized. The entire show made a really big deal about how "problem bears" will be "euthanized'. This is a nature show, presenting real facts about our wildlife and some of the problems it faces. Wouldn't it have made more sense to say something like, "With the tourist continuing to feed these bears, they will become problem bears, and will ultimately be killed." Saying you are going to "euthanize" a problem animal doesn't have the same impact as "killing" a problem animal. All this political correctness has gone WAY too far, call a spade a spade, killing as killing, dead is dead. Happy St Patrick's Day!

Population dynamics and movements of problem black bears in Great Smoky Mountains National Park (TWRA technical report) by William Henry Stiver