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[pct-l] Feeding bears



<can you explain the logic of feeding bears in the wild?  Respect?

All I can do is try. My mother fed me and this didn't cause me to disrespect
her. I hand fed my dogs and they respected my things. My bear respected my
place. If he came by my cabin, my dogs would run him off. I no, this is a
bad thing to do. I just think bears are neat and I enjoy seeing them outside
of camp. My property in MT was a game refuge. I had one of a couple springs
on the mountain. The place was loaded with mule and White-tailed deer. With
deer, there was a large population of cougar. When I built my cabin, I used
all of the limbs to make cover for rabbits and turkeys. Sometimes I would
see over 100 turkeys by my cabin. I would share the horse feed with them.
Deer had salt, the cougar would have deer, and I would share my extra deer
legs with the local bear. I always looked forward to seeing him in the
spring and would load him up with chow after a long winter sleep. I never
fed him more than once a month and never attempted to tame him. Most of the
time, my dogs would steal the deer bones for the bear! This area was far
from civilization. There are only 800,000 people in Montana and this is the
third largest state. My bear friend never bothered anybody. I told all my
neighbors about him and said do not shoot this one. A griz moved into the
area and everyone freaked. I never seen my bear friend and I suspect someone
shot him :(   The Griz was tearing up peoples cabins and everyone wanted him
shot. I know it is wrong, but I love to feed animals. I am the guy you see
at the river bank feeding 200 ducks. I do not think it would be wise to feed
bears in Yosemite or any bear problem area!! Now that I am married, My wife
would divorce me if I fed a bear. She is terrified by them. I just added a
chapter to my web site about my cabin and it should be on-line in a day or
two. Left out the bear stories.

Dane
http://flahorse.com/horseamerica/

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