Bad News Bear Hunters

The referendum's principal sponsor, Maine Citizens for Fair Bear Hunting, was poorly organized. So were the sportsmen who backed the referendum, including the 600-member Hunters for Fair Bear Hunting. The environmental community remained mostly silent, explaining that it has to pick its battles and that this wasn't a smart one to jump into; bears, after all, are doing splendidly in Maine. But national hunter-support groups—legitimate ones committed to improving the hunter's image—were nowhere to be seen. One of the most effective of these, the Izaak Walton League of America, has a new chapter in Maine, but it declined to get involved on grounds that its membership was ambivalent.

The Conservation Council's effort, on the other hand, was brilliant and effective—and utterly duplicitous. SAM openly discussed what the pro-baiting strategy had to be: 1) vilification of black bears and 2) whipping up paranoia about outside plots to ban all hunting and fishing. One of the council's TV ads, which invited viewers to “please join Maine's bear biologists and vote no on 2,” featured the state's respected bear biologist, Jennifer Vashon, expressing her honest opinion that baiting is “one of the most effective methods we have to control bears and minimize conflicts with people.” According to the council, however, these “conflicts” included bear sightings, two of which were grist for other ads: “A bear was shot by police in South Portland” (after residents had complained they had seen it); and, as a part-time animal-control agent grimly recounted, “One elementary school [in Bridgton] had to cancel recess because there was a huge black bear in the area.” The same agent reported: “In Standish a teenager was attacked by a black bear. Fortunately, he survived, but he was lucky.” (So lucky, in fact, that he didn't require medical attention.) “For safety and science vote no on Question 2,” concluded the ad.

“We're lucky there hasn't been a tragedy yet,” proclaimed another ad. “Children should be kept inside for safety.” In what we're told is “an actual audio recording,” a woman with a fishwife voice alternately whispers and shrieks: “Look at that bear. He's running; he's running! The bear is coming this way. How close is he, John, how close is he? Oh my God! He's gonna get the babies, John. He's going right for one. Oh no! Oh God! Oh my God! Oh noooooo! He's dragging the baby. Oh my God! Oh my God! Did you see that bear take that baby?” Eventually we learn that “the baby” is a moose. Yet the ad concluded with: “Vote no on Question 2. Don't take any chances.” Despite all this, the council saw fit to air the following warning by former Maine bear biologist Craig McLaughlin: “These outsiders want you to vote on emotion, not on the facts.”

Printed promos offered more of the same. “People look at a couple ads and articles in the paper and they don't pay much attention,” sighs guide and hunter Cecil Gray, one of the founders of Hunters for Fair Bear Hunting. “But 20 or 30, and everywhere you look more rumors and lies—that's different. We didn't have a chance.”

The smartest thing SAM and its allies did was hire Chris Potholm, founder and CEO of the Potholm Group, a polling and strategic-advice company based in Brunswick, Maine. Potholm has a national reputation for winning against impossible odds—talking Nevadans into purchasing conservation land, for instance. I asked him how he was able to pull this off. “Backers of the referendum were ahead two to one,” he told me. “When I first looked at the numbers and had a meeting with SAM, I said, ‘Guys, I don't know if we can do this, but take six months and try to change it on the ground.' So SAM went out and did the best ground game I've ever seen in 30 years of this stuff. . . . The Fish and Wildlife people did not want to get involved. It was Governor John Baldacci who told them they could appear in the TV commercials. He was under a lot of pressure to stay out of it, and I give him tremendous credit for standing up to the liberal Democratic base. SAM really worked the northern part of the state. They basically said, ‘We're all in this together. This is just the opening wedge. If they ban this, they'll try something else. This is a national effort.' We got all the fishing people, all the northern tourist people, the economic-development people, bow hunters, snowmobilers. . . . The referendum wound up losing 53 percent to 47. Without the ground game and the good television, we would not have won.”

But just what did SAM really win in Maine? And what did the NRA, the U.S. Sportsmen's Alliance, and the Safari Club win in Washington, D.C.? Memberships maybe, but mostly horrid national press and the most graphic case study possible for anti-hunting outfits to depict all hunters as troglodytes. Radical right-to-hunt groups need antis as much as the antis need them. And both sides need bearbaiting.

WHAT YOU CAN DO

If you live in a state that permits bearbaiting (see opening paragraph), talk to your elected officials about introducing legislation to end it. On the federal level, encourage your legislators to end the double standard on public land by introducing a bill similar to the Don't Feed the Bears Act.