Hunting Foes To Battle Over Bear Baiting And The Use Of Hounds

A developing war over whether bear baiting and hound hunting should be banned in Washington state will be one of the biggest emotional issues among hunters and anti-hunters next year.

The first shots of the war will be fired Saturday, when the Washington Wildlife Alliance, a coalition of animal rights and other groups, starts its campaign to get about 225,000 voter signatures on petitions to put an initiative on the ballot for November 1996.

The proposed initiative would ban the use of bait and hounds to hunt bears and the use of hounds to hunt cougars, bobcats and other animals.

The WWA claims that using bait to attract bears during hunting seasons stinks up woods, and adds that baiting is an unfair hunting practice. The use of hounds to find and tree animals, the alliance asserts, is unethical because it violates the theory of “fair chase.”

About half the 1,072 bears bagged in Washington last year were killed either over bait or by hunters using hounds to tree and kill the animals. Nearly all of the 177 cougars killed last year were taken by hunters who used hounds.

The stakes are high. If the initiative becomes law, the annual bear kill may drop dramatically. Almost certainly, few cougars would be killed.

The cougar is a secretive, elusive cat that’s extremely difficult to see in the woods; most hunters who spend a lot of time in cougar country never see them. Some guides who depend on bear and cougar hunters for their income may sell their hounds.

Among the WWA’s allies are the Humane Society of the United States and the Progressive Animal Welfare Society, both of which have taken anti-hunting stands. The latter organization publishes a newsletter, PAWS News, that is providing ammunition for supporters to use to get signatures on initiative petitions.

About 40 of the state’s sports clubs, including the Inland Northwest Wildlife Council, have formed Washingtonians for Wildlife Conservation to gather and disseminate information on bear baiting and hound hunting. Bear and cat hunters know that the issue is likely to be extremely controversial and that it will be difficult to convince the state’s voters to vote against the initiative.

Many hunters seem to be lukewarm in their support of fellow hunters. A few may even vote to ban bear baiting and hound hunting.

Some hunters, particularly those who believe the only fair way to hunt bears is to hunt them without relying on bait and hounds, are ambivalent about bear baiting and hound hunting. And many believe that hunters who sit in their 4-wheel-drive vehicles while their hounds, wearing radio-equipped collars, run down and tree cougars take unfair advantage of the cats.

It’s apparent that the initiative’s sponsors knew when they targeted the bear and cat hunters that baiting and hound hunting is even controversial among many hunters.

Officials of the Fish and Wildlife Department, knowing that bear baiting and hound hunting issues will be on the front burner next year, discussed the WWA initiative at a workshop in Olympia several days ago.

The department is planning to recommend that “no hound” permits be dropped next year in favor of a general season. The season would open Oct. 12 and end Nov. 10. However, the permit system for hunters who use hounds would remain intact.

People behind the initiative believe they’ll get a lot of support from those who don’t hunt. Because they’re only calling for the banning of hound hunting and bear baiting, they believe they’ve got a good chance to win.

They’re even quoting such widely known hunters as former Idaho Governor Cecil Andrus, who, they claim in PAWS News, said: “In my opinion, bear baiting does not fit within the definition of hunting as a sport.” Incidentally, Idaho sportsmen have formed the Sportsmen’s Heritage Defense Fund to fight an anti-bear hunting initiative.

Few of the state’s hunters realize that bear baiting is strictly regulated. Regulations specify the type of bait that can be used, when and where pits for bait can be dug and how soon they’ve got to restore a baiting area to pre-baiting conditions. Idaho has similar regulations.

Washington’s regulations were adopted in recent years following complaints by hikers and other forest users that bear baiters were leaving rotting piles of bait and other garbage at baiting sites. The Fish and Wildlife Department is recommending more restrictive baiting rules for next year.

Despite stringent controls over bear baiting, initiative promoters will still allege that the bear baiters stink up the woods and that bear baiting and hound hunting are unfair to animals. And hunters will allege that the WWA and its friends, if successful, will come up with other plans to curtail hunting.

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The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Fenton Roskelley The Spokesman-Review