On page two of today’s Denver Post, we can read about hero/politician Rep. J. Paul Brown, R., Ignacio, who is introducing a bill in the House which would expand bear hunting into the springtime. Rep. J. Paul Brown, R., Ignacio is a hero, because he is attempting to personally push through his own law, despite the 70% of Coloradoans, who, in 1992, voted in a state-wide referendum to ban most bear hunting. Rep. J. Paul Brown, R., Ignacio is also a hero because he wants to address “the health and safety issue” created by the “more and more human-bear conflicts.” I did not know about this epidemic and began to feel unsafe, so I decided to look into it.
The Post forgot to tell you that State of Colorado
The Post did report that, in general, the Colorado State Division of Wildlife has shot 1,000 of the pesky bruins last year, as opposed to the mere 700 they killed back in 1992, when 70% of the electorate opposed the ban on expanded bear hunting. The bear population was around 8,000 in 1992, and it has ballooned to around 12,000 to date.
Those bears-in-spring must be just out of control, I was thinking, and therefore in need of “management,” which is the politically correct way of saying that so-called “sportsmen” get to hunt them down and shoot them to death. It is still not clear whether it will still be illegal for momma or cubs to be shot, but it will be the protective momma-bears that will most easily draw the fire of the frightened hunter with an expensive license in his pocket. I guess I am supposed to think, if a few cubs starve to death, because some camo-clad dumbasses accidentally shot their moms, it is a small price to pay to ensure my safety down here in Denver
Just think about it. Bears are just coming out of their dens in springtime. Male bears are hungry and so will travel bigger distances to look for food. Momma-bears will be starving, from the long winter and from nursing their cubs. They will be sticking close to their young, that will be playing and whatnot and so the families will be more visible for hero-"sportsman-managers" to murder. What better time to wipe out bears when they are in their most vulnerable state?
Just think about it. Bears are just coming out of their dens in springtime. Male bears are hungry and so will travel bigger distances to look for food. Momma-bears will be starving, from the long winter and from nursing their cubs. They will be sticking close to their young, that will be playing and whatnot and so the families will be more visible for hero-"sportsman-managers" to murder. What better time to wipe out bears when they are in their most vulnerable state?
The Post also reported that the human population in Colorado
Are more being killed in the springtime? Should they be? Are there more bear attacks on humans in the springtime? How many bears were killed as a result of violent encounters, and how many because they presented a continuing nuisance? And what are the locations of the increasing human populations that are actually encountering bears in springtime, or bears at any time of year? The Post forgot to ask these bear essential questions. I had to look elsewhere for answers.
So I called the Colorado Division of Wildlife. They were happy to provide the information I was lacking. I spoke with Jennifer Churchill, the Public Information Officer for the Northeast Region of the Colorado Division of Wildlife. Jennifer was quick to point out two things that I promised to pass along to you. First, the data that she provided me on bear attacks on humans since 1960 was regarding only the reported cases. Jennifer also wanted me (and you) to know that the Colorado Division of Wildlife takes no official position on the proposed legislation of hero/politician J. Paul Brown, R. Ignacio. Jennifer just gave me the data, as reported by the citizens of Colorado
Since 1960, there were 47 reported human/bear encounters. Out of those 47, there were three reported human fatalities. In 1971, an old diseased bear with rotten teeth and a plastic bucket lodged in its stomach, attacked and killed an outdoor camper in the mountains of Grand County Freemont County Buena Vista decided to scare off a bear by…uh… shooting it. The bear had only been searching for food but got upset at being shot and you can guess the rest. In August of 2009, a 74-year- old woman decided to both feed the bears from the porch of her mountain home in La Plata County and to simultaneously try to help out a smaller bear, who was injured from a fight against a much larger bear. At least one of the bears took exception to her interspecial, officious intermeddling.
None of the three fatal attacks, out of the 47 encounters since 1960, happened in hero/politician, Rep. J. Paul Brown R. Ignacio’s home town of Ignacio
Of those 47 encounters since 1960, exactly two (2) had been reported from somewhere around hero/politician, Rep J. Paul Brown’s district. In July of 2010, in a mountain area of La Plata County Montezuma County
The fact that this second incident happened in a residential neighborhood did cause me some concern until I realized that the Town of Cortez Mesa Verde National Park Utah
The rest of the bear encounters reported to the Colorado Division or Wildlife since 1960, read like a Who’s Who of Stupid Humans and Their Stupid Human Tricks. The scares, brushes, home invasions, and some injuries virtually all accompanied open trash containers, human efforts to feed the bears, open doors, dog food left outside, human food kept in ground-level in tents, open food bins, and other assorted inane antics of idiot-humans, who wanted to get back to nature by camping out or building their second or third homes in bear country.
With the exception of the one encounter in the Town of Cortez
Does hero/politician Rep. J. Paul Brown, R., Ignacio really want a law which will cause the death of momma-bears and their cubs in the springtime, because one family in his district encountered a bear in an area surrounded by hundreds of miles of wilderness? Or does he have a bundle tied up in real estate? The Post never got to this question because they phoned-in only half of the story. Inquiring minds want to know.
By the way, out of the 47 reported human/bear encounters in the whole State of Colorado
Hero, politician Rep. J. Paul Brown, R., Ignacio is right about one thing. Reported encounters are on the increase, and, as they have in the past, are coming almost exclusively from the new mountain developments just west of the of the burbs, all along the Rocky Mountain
I am encouraged that some people are becoming educated in bear-encounter etiquette and, as a result, relatively fewer are experiencing much more than an involuntary evacuation of bodily fluids. But the last ten years of encounters still show that humans have much more to learn about bears than bears do about humans. Instead of “managing” momma-bears and their cubs in retaliation for being bears in bear country, perhaps prosecuting stupid humans who do stupid things in bear country would be a better idea.
J. Brandeis Sperandeo
This post is dedicated to my momma-bear. She would have been 84-years-old today.
The Colorado Division of Wildlife has a whole site devoted to teach humans how to more successfully coexist with bears. Notice, there is no section that talks about expanding the bear-hunting season. The DOW has official position on this issue:
The Colorado Division of Wildlife has a whole site devoted to teach humans how to more successfully coexist with bears. Notice, there is no section that talks about expanding the bear-hunting season. The DOW has official position on this issue:
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