The Spring Bear Hunt should…

The Spring Bear Hunt should be abolished. Females with cubs must be “truly” protected and The only way to do that is to not have a spring bear hunt. Since females frequently “tree” their cubs while they forage, it would be impossible for hunters to know whether they are shooting a female with cubs or not.

Orphaned bear cubs have no chance of survival without their mothers. It seems to be unnecessary and cruel. Our actions should be to do no harm to our Ontario wildlife.

In addition, the use of hounds/dogs to chase, tree and/or otherwise harass bears should be immediately halted.

For fall hunts, baiting should be a minimum of 2 km from the nearest residence or residential area and garbage must be cleared after hunt. Fall hunt should begin September 15 and end October 30throughout Province.

Best way to reduce human/bear conflicts is to manage people by making them manage their waste.

Baiting should not take place; if it will, baiting must end when the season concludes and not begin again until shortly before the fall season and more stringent limits must be put in place to protect recreationalists, drivers, property owners, pets and others from bait piles that attract wildlife. All bait sites should be registered to ensure compliance.

Information showing an increase in enforcement capability through funding, infrastructure and boots-on-the-ground hires of conservation officers should be made available.

The government must make an acknowledgement that a spring bear hunt is not about community safety as originally stated in 2014 in the face of their own evidence showing it does not impact human conflict with bears; education and enforcement of human behaviour, attractants and feeding will have the greatest impact on mitigating and preventing conflict.

A report should be created and released on the impact of a spring bear hunt on other recreationalists’ safety, freedom to explore and expectations, as bear hunters in the spring make up a very small percentage of people enjoying the outdoors in Ontario.

A report should be created and released on efforts of the Ontario government to increase availability of non-consumptive ecotourism opportunities in the province alongside the limited spring bear hunt.