Did this bear hunter get what he deserved?

Slaughter, schmaughter: it is the feed lots that I am against. That is a cruel life, which far outweighs a cruel death, in my book. In any event, most slaughter operations are fastidiously overseen by the local PETA* contingent, but nobody gives a crap about feed lot operations - except for veal, which is practically non-existent these days anyway. What a farce.

BTW, bloody, schmoody: I have no problem with preparing animals for the table. I love me a good steak (my colon, not so much.)

* People for the Eating of Tasty Animals, I think.

 

IIRC Somewhere back east some county or state banned deer hunting. They breed like rabbits and within a very short time had overbred the environment. The incidence of disease skyrocketed, not just within the deer population but spilled over into other wildlife, domestic pets and humans. As Deer competed for a scarce food supply they became very aggressive to the point of driving off domestic animals and pets from their food and humans trying to protect their landscaping and gardens. Coyotes also became a problem as they sensed a ready food supply. Not to long after this poorly thought out, ill-fated, feel good legislation was instituted they were hiring people to kill the deer instead of collecting the revenue from hunting licenses.

Texas for sure, other parts of the south and California are becoming overrun with wild pigs. A dangerous fifthly disease ridden species breeding out of control essentially a disaster waiting to happen in some areas. But it is bacon which I don't eat but many of my friends do and the homeless shelter down town is thankful to receive. Personally I can't wait to put a trophy size nasty looking boar head on the wall of my reloading room.

 

He should have been smarter about the entire thing, but I still feel bad for the friend that shot him by accident, and his family.

 

Only the 20 year old deserves sympathy. The hunters death and the bears death are unfortunate. Most hunters know you do not track a dangerous animal into the bush. The fact that it was a Grizzly and not a black bear shows total stupidity. If in doubt, the rule is "Do not fire".

 

There are times and places where survival depends on killing animals for their flesh. I would not intentionally place myself in such a situation, but some cultures exist in such places, and some people enjoy spending time in such places. There are situations where an animal population has outgrown its available food supply, or is on the verge of doing so, and if the population is not reduced by hunting or other human intervention it will collapse by starvation. There will probably always be people happy to take advantage of such situations to obtain cheap food which appeals to them. I do not judge them, though I have gone without eating for several days at a time rather than eat meat, as the thought of it disgusts me.

But the meat industry in the industrial world has changed radically since WWII and is now a serious threat to the world's ability to feed an exponentially increasing population. The amount of land and water used, and the indiscriminate use of antibiotics, which are breeding resistant strains of disease bacteria, as well as the use of hormones which affect the health of the end consumers, make modern meat production a serious threat to the long-term stability of our society.

Range-fed livestock may be using a resource that is otherwise of little use to agriculture, but an insignificant amount of the American meat supply is range fed. Americans want the high fat content of feed-lot lifestock, which is environmentally insupportable, is cruel, and is creating a health catastrophe as obesity and cardiovascular disease have become epidemic.

Our own affluence is killing us.

As for the OP, I am NEVER going to say that someone "got what he deserved" by being killed, but there does seem to have been a lot of recklessness and stupidity involved. Illegally shooting the wrong kind of bear, going hunting without the skill to hit what they were aiming at, following a wounded animal into thick brush, assuming a bear shot in some random part of its body would be dead after 15 minutes, firing wildly at bear and man without (again) the requisite skill to hit the intended target, rather than firing overhead to try to scare the bear off, etc.

They did not "get what they deserved," but they certainly did dig their own hole.

I hike every summer in bear territory. In a good year I get to see a bear up fairly close. They are beautiful animals. It saddens me whenever one is killed. As for hunters, I do not judge them. I do not rejoice when they kill each other. But I don't cry over them either. They knowingly engage in a dangerous pastime with the intention of killing animals for meat they do not actually need for survival, and if they kill each other due to poor firearms skills or reckless incompetence, it's the risk they take by going unprepared to the hunt.

 

Another bear hunting story:

BBC Nature - World famous black bear Hope is believed killed

Tom

 

I think the 20 year old he is the one least deserving of sympathy. He made the initial mis-identification and shot the bear. And when the bear initially attacked him, the now-dead hunter tried to save him by distracting the bear.

So I have sympathy for the dead bear, and for the dead hunter who gave his life trying to save his mistake-making companion.

 

I'm outraged at the first couple of reponses to the OP's thread--and the OP himself. Rejoicing over the death of a human due to an accident is really sick.

In this case, the younger hunter tried to do his best to protect his friend. I'm sure his adrenelin was flowing and if the bear was already on top his friend, a split second decision as to when to fire may have been impossible.

I used to hunt (mainly waterfowl) and have a respect for the hunting experience. I came away from it with an appreciation of how food is obtained. Perhaps it fulfills a primal instinct. For those who purchase their meat wrapped in tidy cellophane, they have no concept of how it arrived in the supermarket.

Although the main premise of PETA is desirable, I find most of the members to be self-righteous and have no inkling of what wildlife management is all about.

 

I wasn't rejoicing. I was just answering the question. Death is never anything to rejoice about. But yes, this idiot got what was coming to him (it wasn't the hunting part - although I'm strongly anti-hunting, I also enjoy a good burger so I can't talk). It's the "chasing after large, ferocious, injured, pissed-off animal" part that gives this guy a Darwin Award.

 

I would add that a lot of people grow up and change for the better. While declaring that the victims get no sympathy, that assumes that they would not change in 40 more years of living to be a great person helping the world.

If a parent told you that they did something "Darwin Award Stupid", would you feel no sympathy if the exact same situation had a different outcome for a stranger? Would the parent feel no sympathy?

 

Animals should be dispatched as quickly and humanely as possible. Abandoning a wounded animal to suffer a slow agonizing death, without a reasonable attempt to dispatch it, is unethical. And an illegal 'waste of game'.

Such agonizing abandonments also provide cruelty-to-animals fodder to the anti-hunting crowd.

 

I was hoping that maybe the guy who was shot was the guy who went out and intentionally killed Hope. Some of the comments online about "Hope jerky" and such are awful. I that case, the hunter deserved what he got.

 

It is not unusual for a experienced hunter to leave the scene and come back the next day, when dealing with a wounded Grizzly in thick bush. Ideally all animals should be dispatched quickly and painlessly. Unfortunately that is not the world we live in.

 

Bear Claymores...???

 

I don't think those are allowed in the southern part of the state, but around here they might be okay.

Tom

 

Wasn't he a college football coach?

 

These guys were hunting black bear, not grizzlies. Anyone 'hunting' grizzlies in the lower 48 is poacher, not a hunter.

Leaving an animal overnight, without field dressing, also ruins the meat in most weather.

 

These guys were apparently too stupid to know the difference. I would be more concerned with my flesh and to hell with the Grizzlie meat.

 

Grizzly hunting is legal in Montana.

Have you ever been out in the field and compared the two?

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=277mUPU4KoM&]Black Bear vs Grizzly Bear - Who's Who? - YouTube[/ame]

 

It's pretty easy to differentiate between the two: If a bear trees you, knocks down the tree, and then eats you, it is a Grizzly; if a bear trees you, climbs the tree, and then eats you, it is a black bear.

Tom