today was the first day of bear hunting in pennsylvania. although i' ve never been into bear hunting, my wife and i always take the kids up to the bear check station here in warren county to see hwo the turn out was. while we were there, we only got to see one bear and it had to be this year' s cub. it couldn' t have weighed more than 40 lbs. i myself would have let this one pass by. would you??
There are certain areas in the state of Alaska that I wish they would open to cubs. Currently it is not legal to kill a cub bear in Alaska, but with some of the over population and predation on other game, it could help make a difference.
My general feeling is no, I would not want to kill a cub though, plenty of other bears out there and you don' t get much meat off cubs.
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I don' t believe it is ethical to kill a cub. What are the reasons to go for a bear?
1. For meat. Cubs don' t have much.
2. For a trophy and bragging rights if you' re into that. I' m not but I see many out of state hunters come up and shoot a bear that' s less than 100 lbs. and parade it around. They only get recognition from people who don' t know better.
3. For a rug or mount. Then you want a grown bear as well.
If we are talking about black bears then there are many older females that are around 110-150 lbs. But they look like small bears, not scrawny like cubs.
Cubs in the spring are not legal to shoot here in Ontario. (Actually, at this time, no bear is) By the fall, they are considered legal but only hunters who have never taken a bear or can' t judge size will take one. Thats when their embarassment kicks in.
I disagree when it comes to predator control and management. We have some real problems with over predation in Alaska, and I' d rather see a management practice in place to help reduce the number of bears in a certain area. Research has shown that black bears have more effect on moose, caribou and sheep populations in certain areas over wolves and brown bears.
I don' t think it would be popular with hunters or non-hunters, but from a management point of view, it could help control population.
Currently in Alaska they are calling wolf control by aircraft " hunting" It is not hunting, it is predator control, I wish they would call it as such.
There is no way that this would pass in Alaska though, the public relations department would have a heart attack if it was proposed.
For the areas that I bear hunt though, I wouldn' t take cubs, but if I were in an area with management plan in place to take cubs, I would to help control wildlife populations.
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Isn' t there a story about how Teddy Bears got the name.
Because Teddy Roosevelt refused to shoot a bear cub.
Some one can set me straight on that one.
No I wouldn' t shoot a cub/fawn/calf/kid unless for some humane reason.
Would rather see them grow.
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SOUTHERN MAN.
" GO HARD OR STAY HOME"
cubs: would you shoot them??
