URGENT: Michigan plans to murder a mother for protecting her children! Please take action!

UPDATE FROM BORN FREE (early November 2010):

We talked with Russ Mason of the Department of Natural Resources and Environment. He’s in charge of this bear issue. He said that the Michigan Department of Fish and Wildlife is not actively looking for the bears in question at this point as officials think the bears have gone into hibernation — good news! He added that the traps have been removed and that they will not actively look for the bears when they come out of hibernation in the spring. However, if the mother bear comes into contact again with humans, she will be killed.

When asked about the possibility of sending the mother bear to a sanctuary, Mason said that is not Michigan’s procedure for “habituated” bears. Although he agreed that this particular incident was brought on by the hunter punching one of the cubs and the mother trying to protect her, he thinks that this bear has been seen around town and therefore “habituated.” He did admit that the mother bear was probably not out to kill the hunter as she could’ve easily done that if she had wanted to.

Please take ACTION and include the above briefly, thank you!

1. Please sign and send TWO automatic messages:

• Michigan Momma Bear on Death Row
• URGENT – PLEASE HELP SAVE MOTHER BEAR IN PETOSKEY, MI.

Message Text

I have heard about the mother bear who, in protecting her cubs earlier this month, injured a bow-hunter in Emmet County. Thankfully, the man survived the attack. I urge you to let the mother bear live, too.

A basic instinct of all mothers, including bears, is to protect their young. According to the Michigan Department of Natural Resources and Environment’s investigation into the incident, the sow’s cubs were drawn to the hunter because he retained smells from a family barbecue he had attended earlier in the day. Their interaction with the man was accidental, and their mother bear’s response to the confrontation was natural.

In announcing that the mother bear will be trapped and euthanized, DNRE’s wildlife chief, Russ Mason, said that the cubs are old enough to make it on their own. Why, then, were the cubs still with their mother at the time of the incident, and not already independent?

Soon the mother bear and her cubs will hibernate for the winter, and dangers — perceived and otherwise — will have passed. Please don’t punish a bear for heeding her maternal instincts.

From Change:

The voting citizens of Michigan have overwhelmingly voiced their opinion in the UpNorthLive.com newspaper poll with 85 percent voting no to the killing of this mother bear. Please listen to your constituents, and show some mercy and compassion to this bear family.

Please don’t forget to sign and send the above HERE and on Change

2. Please contact Russ Mason of the Michigan Department of Natural Resources & tell him how you feel: MasonR2@michigan.gov

3. Please read Politics and wildlife management – New Jersey bear hunt debate
By Katherine McGill from which I have shared the following:

The third trophy bear hunt in 40 years (in New Jersey)  is scheduled for December. A ticket to kill a bear is $2.00. Yes, $2 ! Can you say “subsidized”? Who do you think is paying for the manpower to manage this hunt? We all are.

Hunters, sportsmen’s organizations, division officials, and the NJ Fish & Game Council claim a hunt is necessary to control a burgeoning bear population, and that public safety is a priority concern. Meanwhile there is scientific proof to the contrary, State F&G biologists (no bias there)claiming a hunt is needed, but in the bigger picture? Over 69% of the general public remain in opposition — and are being completely disregarded!

Then there is Compensatory Rebound Effect (CRE) science, which has proven to all of us that Nature is perfectly able to maintain wildlife populations. But that news seems to have not made it into the deep woods yet, especially in Michigan. Last week a camouflaged 21 year old bow-hunter kid sat in tree stand after a Bar-b-que and now ponders why a bear cub climbed up to check him out. He punched the cub, mother bear gives him a nip, and now Michigan is on a mission to kill her and her three cubs, per Russ Mason of the MDNR. Why three cubs? CRE. Check it out, Michigan wildlife management professionals; you might also be killing off your bears too fast!

Please click HERE to read the rest of Ms. McGill’s expose (start from the beginning as I have shared selected text from the middle, thank you).

RELATED INFORMATION

From: Brennon Browne
To: masonr2@michigan.gov

Mr Mason, you quote:

“Anytime you are dealing with a sow and her cubs, you have a potentially dangerous situation,” said DNRE Wildlife Chief Russ Mason. “A sow will do whatever it takes to protect her cubs if she perceives a threat. In this case, the hunter was not threatening the cubs, but the sow apparently thought he was, and she attacked him.”

This statement is blatantly untrue. The hunter admitted to elbowing and punching one of the cubs until it fell to the ground. Apparently THEN AND ONLY THEN did the mother bear “attack.” Had she genuinely wanted to do harm to this rube, he would have most certainly ended up dead. This mother’s reaction was a gentle warning and nothing more, I can assure you. I speak from living in the wilderness for 10 years and having a lifetime of experience in observing various species in the wild. I’m an animal behaviorist. And this whole incident and your response to it reeks of hysterical overreaction.

You claim that this female necessitates being destroyed because of her aggression and alleged lack of fear of humans. The truth is, this was a situation where a hunter, saturated with the smell of fried food, inadvertently used himself as a “lure” to coincidentally attract this mother and her cubs. This was NOT an incident of an aggressive bear stalking a human with the intent to do harm. The death sentence you have imposed is unwarranted and immoral.

As a taxpayer and someone who attempts to live up to a certain code of ethics, I am thoroughly disgusted with our hunter-dominated wildlife agencies. The ease by which your ilk mass murders is beyond reprehensible. Your arrogance and ignorance regarding the voiceless creatures you have charge over is criminal.

I hope you will reconsider your rash rush to jumping to the wrong conclusions and relocate this mother and cubs. She deserves the right to her natural lifespan and not to be yet another victim, sacrificed upon the altar of man’s psychopathic stupidity.

Brennan Browne

Included is an article which astutely illustrates this:

Wildlife Services Exterminates Over 4.1 Million Animals in 2009 Agency’s Budget Shrouded from Public

According to records released today by WildEarth Guardians, “Wildlife Services,” the ironically-named branch of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, killed more than four million wild animals and pets in 2009 while spending $121,039,763. Last month, WildEarth Guardians filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit seeking to track how this money is spent, but the agency continually sidesteps public scrutiny.

“Apparently, Wildlife Services is comprised of bands of secret agents. One group, the assassins, operates on our national forests and kills millions of the public’s wildlife using helicopters, guns, poisons, traps, and hounds. The second, the artful dodgers, play shell games in the dark with the public’s money,” said Wendy Keefover-Ring of WildEarth Guardians.

In 2009, Wildlife Services reported it killed 4.1 million animals and “destroyed” 18,000 more. That total includes a staggering 27,314 beavers; 988,577 blackbirds; and 114,522 mammalian carnivores (e.g., 1,775 bobcats, 82,097 coyotes, 480 wolves, 571 river otters, and 443 black bears.)

Wolves in Idaho and Montana are now listed as federally endangered.

In response to WildEarth Guardians’ lawsuit, Wildlife Services and its parent agency, the USDA’s Animal and Health Inspection Service, stated that it could not answer the group’s simple request for line-item spending data. They agency stated that it tracks expenses using two different data bases: one that is “operational” and the other “financial”, but the accounting systems are “not interactive.” Thus, Wildlife Services claims it does not know how much it spends on its controversial operations such as shooting coyotes and wolves from helicopters. The agency further stated: “Wildlife Services does not have a managerial need for financial data at this finite level.”

“Federal agencies must be fiscally accountable to the public,” stated Steve Sugarman, WildEarth Guardians’ attorney. “It’s time for Wildlife Services to stop playing shell games and show the public what they’re doing with our money in the light of day,” he added.

Wildlife Services is biologically harmful and unselective for species killed. Many conservation biologists have noted that Wildlife Services’ carnivore eradications amount to a “sledgehammer” approach to wildlife management because of the breadth of the extermination. Wildlife Services uses indiscriminate and deadly means to slay wildlife—many are killed by mistake—even rare species such as kit foxes, swift foxes, and river otters.

“Of the 571 river otters it killed in 2009, Wildlife Services notes that 84% were killed accidentally. This is simply not tolerable: river otters are sorely lacking from many river systems,” said Keefover-Ring.

View Wildlife Services’ 2009 Annual Tables

http://www.aphis.usda.gov/wildlife_damage/prog_data/2009_prog_data/data_index_2009.shtml

War on Wildlife: The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s “Wildlife Services”

View this document on Scribd

Department of Justice’s Letter on Behalf of Wildlife Services to WildEarth Guardians

View this document on Scribd

Complaint filed in the Freedom of Information Act Lawsuit

View this document on Scribd

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BACKGROUND

Hear from the hunter bitten by a bear in Emmet County
By Andrew Keller

An Emmet County man has a different kind of hunting story to tell, after he was attacked by bears while sitting in a tree stand.

Deputies and the Department of Natural Resources were called to the area in Bear Creek Township, which is near Petoskey, Saturday night after 21-year-old Chad Fortune was attacked by a female black bear and her three cubs.

Fortune told law enforcement officials that he was bow hunting for deer just before dark on farmland when the bears approached and then climbed up his treestand and attacked him.

Fortune said at first two cubs climbed up the treestand ladder, and when he shouted at them, they dropped to the ground. A third bear then climbed up the tree, and the hunter punched and elbowed it until it fell from the tree. Then a bear climbed up the treestand ladder and bit Fortune on the leg.

Fortune remained in the treestand for two hours until his fiancee and father came looking for him, worried that he had not returned from hunting after nightfall. After helping him down from the treestand, they transported Fortune to the hospital for treatment.

He was treated at the hospital for bites to his left calf, thigh and shoulder.

The DNRE’s preliminary investigation of the incident indicates that Fortune may have been wearing clothing underneath his camouflage hunting gear that smelled like fried food items from a family party he attended just prior to going hunting.

A DNRE conservation officer and wildlife biologist who are investigating the incident theorize the bears were lured by the food scents on the hunter’s clothing.

“Anytime you are dealing with a sow and her cubs, you have a potentially dangerous situation,” said DNRE Wildlife Chief Russ Mason. “A sow will do whatever it takes to protect her cubs if she perceives a threat. In this case, the hunter was not threatening the cubs, but the sow apparently thought he was, and she attacked him.”

The black bear is the only bear species native to Michigan, with approximately 90 percent of the bear population living in the Upper Peninsula.

Black bears are shy by nature, and have a fear of humans. The fear of humans should remain intact, and the DNRE encourages Michigan residents and visitors to not leave food accessible to bears. Once a bear associates food with a human, the situation can become dangerous. For more information on bears in Michigan, including how to prevent problems between bears and humans, CLICK HERE: http://www.michigan.gov/bear