I do not support the…

I do not support the reintroduction of the Spring Bear Hunt for the following reasons:

While Ontario is the natural territory of black bears, it is also home to a growing population of humans and their expanding settlements, which bring them into occasional contact with those bears.

Dr. Herrero, a bear expert at the University of Calgary, reported in 2011 that bear-caused fatalities have increased largely in lockstep with the continent's human population growth and subsequent rise of recreational activities. Between 1900 and 2009, there were 63 deaths by bear attack recorded in North America, of which 44 occurred in Canada. Improperly stored food and garbage was involved in 38% of those incidents. According to StatsCan, there were 155 homicides in Ontario during ONE YEAR in2014, with a total of 516 in Canada. That same year, there was an estimated 115,000 black bears in Ontario, compared to 13.8-million humans. Since that time, the human population has increased again ... and again.

I would suggest the growing piles of half-eaten fast food meals and associated containers, thrown from car windows after the vehicle’s occupants have eaten their fill, pose a much bigger problem than black bears. This form of thoughtless unintentional ‘bear baiting’ attracts bears whose acute sense of smell is attuned to food odours, and they are especially hungry after hibernation. Searching for food is a daily concern. Instead of ‘managing’ the ‘sustainable black bear population’, it is time to manage human behaviour as it relates to the thoughtless convenience practised by the members of the ‘human tribe’ whose growing numbers and associated activities are not so sustainable, or ‘bearable’ within the context of the finite natural environment.

Ontario’s data reveal human-bear ‘occurrences’ range from sightings to contacts and fluctuate mainly according to food availability in the wild. Ill-timed frost and/or a poor berry season affect the bears’ search for food. A spring bear hunt is not the solution. Only in those cases where a bear shows deliberate predatory or stalking behaviour toward humans should a bear be killed.

Black bear management needs to focus on reducing human-bear conflicts by investing in coexistence education. Ontarians and tourists can safely share the landscape with black bears and other carnivores; we only need to make sure we have the resources to teach them how. Once again, re-introduce and scale up the Bear Wise Program.

Baiting bears during a HUNT can exacerbate the number of nuisance bears by teaching them that they are rewarded by following attractants laid out by people. Human attractants are a known cause of nuisance bear activity in populated areas. Bear baiting is begun well in advance of the legal hunt, and not every bear that uses the bait is killed. Since it is not legal to hunt female bears, and female bears teach their young how to forage, females that are not accidentally killed after using bait sites teach their young to take advantage of bait and other human food. Baiting only INCREASES the likelihood of bear encounters, so STOP BAITING them.

Black bear management needs to focus on reducing human-bear conflicts by investing in co-existence education. Ontarians and tourists can safely share the landscape with black bears and other carnivores; we only need to make sure we have the resources to teach them how. Once again, re-introduce and scale up the Bear Wise Program. Tourism is safer for bears and people. Examine the opportunities presented for bear-watching by operators such as 'Grizzly Bear Ranch' in B.C. https://grizzlybearranch.ca/

We have a small cottage southeast of Parry Sound, Ontario. Occasionally, bears wander through our property, so we are careful never to leave any garbage outside. We don’t put up bird feeders because the seeds attract bears … but a bear was shot on the veranda of one home several years ago, simply because the residents had put up a bird feeder, which was discovered by the bear. “A fed bear is a dead bear”, as this example demonstrates.

Knowing that bears have a keen sense of smell, we store food in containers inside the cottage. When we see a sow and her cub standing on the rocks in front of our cottage, we know this is their home. We have a responsibility to maintain ‘their home’. We have watched a black bear roll in the brush next to our cottage, then lie there looking up toward the sky for few minutes before wandering away. We understand they are wild animals, so we avoid them as much as they appear to avoid us, but we also realize they represent a native species which belongs here. We saw bears on different occasions until the summer of 2017. Since that time, there have been no sightings at all, and we are concerned about their survival.

The Spring Bear Hunt results in orphaned bear cubs. There is no denying this - wildlife rehabilitators can attest that some hunters make mistakes and kill mothers with cubs even though regulations were designed to prevent this from happening.

In 1999, the Conservative government cancelled the spring bear hunt in recognition of the fact that we can't put a price on any number of cubs that starve or die of exposure after being orphaned due to government regulations. Indeed, protecting wildlife should be at the heart of any management plan or action.

Bear cubs are orphaned when females are killed. It is too difficult for hunters to tell the difference between male and female bears, and females leave their cubs in nearby trees while they forage. Inevitably, female bears are killed in the spring bear hunt.

Orphaning cubs threatens the black bear population, which has one of the lowest reproductive rates of all species. 70% of orphaned cubs die before they reach one year of age. Female black bears do not generally start giving bear until they are 6 years old. Appeasing hunters and other special interest groups should not be the primary goal of wildlife management policy.

Around 2013 or 2014, following repeated budget cuts, the provincial Bear Wise program was no longer able to effectively engage northern communities to prevent conflict with bears in times of wild food shortages. Re-introduce that program, please.