Successful Bear-Baiting Critics Outspent By Sportsmen

Relying overwhelmingly on volunteers, the Idaho Coalition United for Bears qualified its initiative to restrict bear hunting with just a quarter of the cash Idaho sportsmen spent trying to stop it.

Campaign finance reports filed with the secretary of state showed that through June 30 the coalition had spent a total of $50,000 to win ballot status for the ban on bear-baiting, running down bears with hounds and the spring bear hunt.

The coalition, however, only had $4,200 in the bank to counter what is expected to be a major campaign against it by the Sportsmen’s Heritage Defense Fund.

The sportsmen’s group, claiming wildlife management should be left to the Fish and Game Commission and warning that the initiative is the first step toward banning hunting in Idaho, spent over $205,000 in the failed effort to keep the proposal off the ballot

But it has over $71,000 in the bank on July 1 and a pledge for $40,000 more from the Archery Manufacturers and Merchants Organization in Florida.