Of the elements in the…

Of the elements in the proposal, I agree with the updates to black bear regulations to improve fairness.

While I appreciate the economic considerations behind the spring bear hunt itself, I am against it and here is why:

1. It will result in orphaned bear cubs. While it is illegal to kill mother bears with cubs, often mother bears with young cubs will have them stay in trees while she forages, which can be a kilometre or more away. In that situation, a hunter would only see a lone bear and, not being able to tell it is a mother bear, legally would be able to kill it. The result would be orphaned cubs dying slowly of starvation. This defeats the whole purpose of prohibiting killing mother bears and, more significantly, is really cruel.

2. This possibility runs counter to the fourth Guiding Principle of the OMNR Black Bear Management Framework:

"Harvest management strategies must recognize that black bears have an inherently low reproductive capacity relative to other harvested large mammals and that, as with other long-lived species, population growth rate is most sensitive to changes in adult survival, particularly survival of adult females."

Since the spring bear hunt threatens mother bears with young cubs, by allowing the spring bear hunt to continue in perpetuity the OMNR is violating one of its own Guiding Principles.