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Nevada's first bear hunt approved
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Craig L. Moran/Las Vegas Review-Journal
Kathryn Bricker dances as Bubba the Bear during a protest at the Clark County Government Center. She is joined by others who are holding signs opposing the Nevada Board of Wildlife Commissioners' approval of the state's first regulated bear hunting season. » Buy this photo
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LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL
Updated: Feb. 5, 2011 | 9:36 a.m.
Nevada wildlife commissioners defied a contingent of bear hunt opponents Friday, voting 7-1 to hold a season this year for killing 20 black bears in Northern Nevada.
The vote confirmed a Dec. 4 decision to establish the state's first regulated bear hunt. The dissenting vote came from Charles Howell of Las Vegas, who represents sportsmen on the nine-member panel. He said the 20-bear limit was "ridiculously low," considering that California hunters were permitted to take 1,900 black bears last year.
Chairman Scott Raine didn't vote because he breaks ties only.
In public comments and at a rally outside the Clark County Government Center, opponents castigated the Board of Wildlife Commissioners for setting the season. They said public sentiment was overwhelming against it.
One protester, Christine Schwamberger, of nobearhuntnv.org, filed an Open Meeting Law complaint with the state attorney general's office, alleging commissioners committed criminal and civil violations for failing to admit thousands of public comments against the hunt when it was approved Dec. 4.
Schwamberger said 3,090 e-mails about the hunt were submitted to the commission by individuals, and 3,028 opposed it.
"Until the legal, procedural and ethical proposals in this regulation are resolved, this regulation should be tabled," she said. "And gentlemen, no-bear-hunt-nevada-dot-org is not going away."
Schwamberger questioned regulations that allow hunters to use dogs and bows-and-arrows.
"It is one thing to hunt an animal for food and to kill that animal quickly and painlessly. It is quite another to terrorize an animal to death and brutalize it for hours and even days,'' she said.
Before the meeting, Gina Greisen, president of Nevada Voters for Animals, and a dozen other protesters held "No Hunt" signs while a woman in a bear costume danced on the sidewalk.
"I was a bear killed in the Lake Tahoe basin. I ate too much human food and was killed by biologists as a nuisance bear," said the woman in the bear suit, Kathryn Bricker of Zephyr Cove.
Schwamberger called for the resignations of Raine and Commissioner Hal Shrum, saying they had violated their oaths to serve the public.
Wildlife biologist Carl Lackey should be removed for advising the panel that the state's 250-bear population in the Lake Tahoe basin is more than adequate to support a hunt, Schwamberger said.
Lackey said Nevada's 250 bears are part of "one big population in the Sierra Nevada" that numbers between 10,000 and 15,000. Even if 40 bears were harvested, the population in Nevada would still grow, he said.
Commissioners emphasized that the hunt was approved not as a method of dealing with specific bears that invade homes and vehicles in residential areas, but because hunters requested a season to coincide with those in neighboring states.
"There is a lot of emotion on this issue, I realize that," Commissioner Daryl Cappuro said. "At no time did we say we were having a hunt to get rid of problem bears."
The Department of Wildlife held a drawing for 45 black bear tags for a season that will run from Aug. 20 through Dec. 31, or until the quota of 20 is reached. Hunters are prohibited from killing a cub or a sow accompanied by a cub. Only six females can be killed. Other details will be announced later.
Two people spoke in support of the hunt Friday.
One, Jeliedo Tiberti, gave his view in a single sentence: "I'm from Southern Nevada, and I would like to go up there and whack one of those big bears.''
Contact reporter Keith Rogers at krogers@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0308.
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Death is Death...Life is Life...are you prepared to answer to the choices you make? Hate if you must but be prepared to stand before your maker, whatever you believe!
If hunters would, if not on their own, were made to, as in required (as in enforced) to eat every last bite of what they kill, THEN I'm all for a hunt. Anything else is just a trophy-kill - period and THAT IS WRONG! (Hunters with integrity are few nowadays.) Don't go target practice on little chipmunks or birds because this made you mad.
p.s. I am ALL FOR the right to own, carry & use my gun!
Throughout the years hunters (and fishermen) have provided untold amounts of monies for the betterment of wildlife. Revenues from licenses have purchased wetlands, forest lands and on and on. The anti-hunters, the most they contribute is a lot of MOUTH! I learned this many years ago, guess things haven't changed all that much. Hey, I have an idea. Why don't you mouthy do-gooders start a license program for anti-hunters and use the revenue to do your share for wildlife. Oh-oh, that might cut into your cigarette and booze money...guess that wouldn't work.
Mad, all hunters want to kill the hand holding the gun. These inadequacy. The idea to prove themselves because of the killing. Power is not a gun show. Hunters call out to you. Far-sighted weapons would not be back. To make a match out of the ring bears. Bears do not have arms in their hands. Hunter you are a loser.
My vote since the killing of hunters. Opened the season with the murder weapon in the hands of hunters.
Thank you for your efforts.
We are predaors....period......Does PETA protes Coyotes for killing rabbits????? Are Grizzly bears protested and attacked for killing thousands of SALMON every year??????????? What about Lions that kill zebras??????? Does PETA protest them........it is the way of the world....they are in fact animals.........PETA would be better off worrying about humans.,
he American black bear (Ursus americanus) is North America's smallest and most common species of bear. Black bears are omnivores, with their diets varying greatly depending on the season. Black bears typically live in largely forested areas, but do leave forests in search of food. Sometimes they become attracted to human communities because of the immediate availability of food. The American black bear is listed by the IUCN as Least Concern, due to the species' widespread distribution and a large global population estimated to be twice that of all other bear species combined.
Yeah lets not kill anything even plants cause they are alive and have feelings too. Stupid california tree huggers go home to you're screwed up marijuana loving state.
jaun likes bears all 30 of them in Nevada. Jaun can make a lot of tacos out of one bear
Viking1 has obviously never seen a mature, wild black bear.
This news unsettle me, it just doesn't make any sense. Why would people still hunt in this century? If you embrace hunting really that much, you should just install a FPS game and start the killing. If I were to select the dumbest people on Earth, it would be these people, these "Huntards" Come to your senses, wake up.
Hunting is prohibited in many places, even in China. People still hunt in private parties around the desolated areas where Bears still roam around. I dislike these people, they hunt the bear for their meat and hides solely for money, since a small part of the Chinese culture still hold the traditional thinking of eating body parts of bears for gaining their strength and stamina.
But these Huntards in U.S or Canada, they hunt these bears for "FUN" for their so called Hunting Sport, which should not even exist if you ask me. In CA, they allow hunters to slaughter 1900 bears per year. It sounds brutal to me. Why don't they enforce a law and let these hunters to hunt 1900 humans instead, what makes animal so different from us? They are innocent, they can't defend themselves. If you like fighting that much, join the army and get yourself killed on the frontline of a battlefield.
No wonder Nevada is one of the top three dumbest States in U.S. Congratulations, huntards.