CA Fish & Game Meeting- Voices needed for CA bears!!!

[Guest guest]

If you can make it, that would be absolutely wonderful.  Please cross-post, as most people on this list don't live in Monterey.  Even if you don't know anyone in Monterey, please cross-post, as you never know who knows someone who lives there or nearby.  Thank you!!!  Stephanie

CA Fish & Game Commission Meeting - Need Voices for Bears

 

 

 

 

Type:

 

Meetings -

 

 

 

Date:

 

Thursday, April 8, 2010

 

Time:

 

8:30am - 11:30am

 

Location:

 

Monterey - Best Western Beach Resort (La Grand room)

 

Street:

 

2600 Sand Dunes Drive

 

City/Town:

 

Monterey, CA

 

 

 

View Map

 

 

Description

 

Each year more than 1,700 bears are killed in California where it remains legal to hunt bears weighing over 50 pounds during the designated hunting season. The majority of bears killed are through the use of hound hunting.

If approved by the Commission, the Department’s proposal will:• permit the use of high-tech global positioning (GPS) equipment and “tip switches” on dog collars to make it easy to locate and kill a bear at point-blank range;

• open the first-ever bear hunting season in San Luis Obispo county and expand the hunts in Modoc and Lassen counties; • allow an unlimited number of bears to be killed across California during the hunting season; and

• significantly expand the hound training season thereby allowing dogs to harass bears nearly all year long. Bear hound hunters are already permitted to use radio telemetry devices, a tool effective enough at tracking animals that the National Park Service and countless bear researchers use it to track their bears. GPS technology directs the hunter so he or she can shoot the bear at point-blank range and tip switches are devices which notify a hunter when the dog has chased a bear up a tree. Giving houndsmen the ability to use GPS and tip switch technologies removes every element of fair chase.

The Department has not justified or produced any science supporting the need for opening bear hunting into San Luis Obispo, expanding the hunt in Lassen and Modoc Counties, and eliminating the annual quota that may be taken during the bear hunting season. The Department has not demonstrated this rather has stated that these proposed changes are necessary as they will increase hunter opportunity and lessen pubic confusion. The San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors has formally opposed the expansion.

Lastly, given that our warden force is already at an all-time low, we fail to see how they will be able to enforce these additional regulations. The agency is currently unable to respond to two-thirds of the calls to the state’s poaching tip line because of staffing shortages. This proposal will add to the workload and could increase poaching activities.

We need as many people as possible to attend this hearing on April 8 in Monterey to voice opposition to the proposals. Please attend & bring a friend.-- " Our task must be to widen our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty. "   Albert Einstein

" The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the ways its animals are treated. "    Mahatma Gandhi