Re: [pct-l] bears

[Bighummel@aol.com]

Hear, Hear! Mountain Dave!

Yellowstone re-instilled the fear of man into the bears a number of years ago 
(I don't know if they have maintained this policy) in a creative way by 
arming Park Rangers with guns loaded with rubber bullets.  They shot every 
bear they saw and in just a few months the bears started remembering that 
seeing a man could mean a lot of pain!

Come on Yosemite, Kings Canyon and Sequoia, let's put the fear of man back 
into those now-fearless bears.  A child will reach up to the hot stove only 
once when they feel the pain as the memory of pain is one of the greatest 
teachers of man and animal alike.  It is not cruelty, in fact it can easily 
be argued that it is in fact more kind to the animals.  Yellowstone Rangers 
that I spoke with had been shooting bears for over a year when I visited back 
in '90.  They said that the number of rubber bullets that they used and 
sitings of bears had steeply dropped off in the recent months.  I didn't even 
see one bear when I was there for two days; quite a change from the 
stereotype of Yellowstone with bears poking their noses into car windows, etc.

I think that I'll go looking for National Park public comment sites.

Greg "Strider" Hummel

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