Very sad. I hate hunting!

How disgusting. I'm so sorry to hear that.

Oh, I'm so sorry to hear that....I want to hope (Pardon the pun) that she has just wandered off, as she did before.

Frankly I'm tired of hearing all the garbage about "Hope" and "Lily". They're wild animals that some idiots have tried to tame and that's caused the animals problems. That's nothing short of animal abuse in my book. Putting ribbons on a bear doesn't tame it. That's the saddest part. Besides that they've used those animals for profiteering, misrepresenting things to gain contributions. That whole operation needs to be shut down and the criminals prosecuted for animal abuse. An audit of their accounts and fundraising tactics should be included too.

I think hunting is the most disgusting thing. Iowa this year make mourning dove hunting legal.

Again....the thrill of the kill. In these days, the reason for hunting because a person needs to eat is so slim. It is just the disgusting fun of killing an unarmed pretty much a defenseless animal. These bears were a source of entertainment and learning for many,many people. Now (I do hope it isn't true) one gun happy individual selfishly took care of that. How clever for one of these killing people to set out bait. I know a gal who's husband would buy blueberry jam and smear that around an area, then set himself down and wait for a bear to smell the jelly, come to the area so he could blast it with his mighty gun. Yeah, that's sportsmanship!!! And, yes, I know where the meat on my table comes from. Those animals were raised for the purpose, so if a hunter enthusiast plans to sing that lame old song to me, don't bother.

I agree with Cynic on this one that this company is exploiting animals.

Also, don't knock the taste of bear meat. It is actually quite tastey if cooked correctly. I'm not one that hunts but I do have friends that hunt. Contrary to some of the opinions on this post, people do hunt all time time for the sake of food. There are people who truly do not make enough to buy much food and therefore they live off the land. Rural areas are full of folks that live just like this. I think what I hate more is when those that don't hunt lump all hunters together as evil.

While there are plenty of bad hunters, there's way more good hunters that truly take only what they need to feed their families. If they end up with more, they give it to the local food shelves. The food shelves here get lots of "wild" game.

Finally, I wish bear hunting were legal in my 20 mile area. The bear population is growing rapidly due to our milder winters lately. The bears around here are having 2 and 3 cubs at a time. I not only have to worry about hitting deer with my car now I have to worry about hitting bear.

I guess what I'm more tired about is the "city" folk telling the "country" folk how to live. Unless you live in an area such as this your whole life, you truly can't understand our way of life.

I know that this will anger some people on this post. It's not meant to anger but to tell a different side of the story. If I ruffle some feathers, then so be it.

it doesn't anger me scissors, i absolutely agree with you!

in addition, an ethical hunter will use every bit of the game they kill. with the cost of meat these days, if you can provide for your family by hunting, more power to you.

all the hunters i know personally are not lame yahoos, they are law abiding sportsmen and women.

(From my facebook updates. I've been getting updates for many months. Toni)

Facts and Feelings

The wait is over. The hoped for confirmation from the DNR never came, but the hunter who shot Hope came forward to provide us with some facts via email. The hunter said he shot a yearling female at his bait the evening of Friday September 16. She was alone and he had no clue it was Hope. We know the hunter and he has been cooperative and helpful in the past. He would never shoot a collared bear�and he would not have deliberately shot Hope.

Here is the chain of events. Hope was last seen with Lily and Faith at 7:05 PM on September 14 at one of the dozen feeding stations in the community. Residents of this community have been feeding bears since 1961. As a result, there are no bad food years here and bear problems run 80% below the state average. In this year of scarce wild food, the feeding stations were especially important in keeping bears out of trouble.

The hunters� bait was 1200 to 1600 yards from the 3 feeding stations Lily and her family have visited this fall between excursions to forage for scarce wild foods. About 4 PM on September 15, Lily and family found the hunter�s bait. The next afternoon, September 16, the family returned to the area and bedded 165 yards away. In the evening, Hope was the one that got up and went to the bait first. We believe the hunter when he said Hope came to his bait alone.

Most bears taken in the hunt are 1-2 years old so the fact he shot a yearling is not unusual. He is not a trophy hunter, but shoots smaller bears for the quality of their meat. And he eats what he kills. He also is not a member of the �Lily: A bear with a bounty� page and has never posted there.

Unfortunately, our update of September 17 said we had visited Lily and family. In fact, we did not see Hope or Faith on the 17th. Sue found Lily alone and changed her GPS unit. When Lily walked away grunting and tongue-clicking�the contact vocalizations mothers make to their cubs�we assumed Hope and Faith were nearby. We had no reason to believe otherwise. We are sorry for any confusion this caused. We are human and make mistakes.

In retrospect, there may have been clues we missed. Lily was not her usual self when Sue met up with her on the 17th. She allowed Sue to change her GPS unit but didn�t stay around to finish the nuts. Sue chocked Lily�s behavior up to the lethargy we see in bears at this time of year. They�re slowing down in preparation for denning. Mothers slow down long before their cubs and their cubs often roam without them. That was Hope�s undoing. It is possible Lily�s apparent lethargy may have been her response to the sudden loss of Hope.

Another clue was Faith�s peculiar reaction when we checked on Lily�s family September 21�the day after the picture of Lily and Faith walking on the road. As we approached, Faith moved away rather than towards us like she usually does. She seemed less confident without big sister Hope around.

Where do we go from here? It�s an emotional time for all of us. At first it�s tears. Then it�s anger and a search for why. Then a sense of loss sets in. We appreciate your support through all of this. It�s a time to come together, and we�re glad to have many old Lily fans gathering together with us.

Please respect our desire to keep the hunter�s name confidential. Attacks on him or hunters in general will only serve to undermine our potential for future research and education.

Thank you for all you do.

�Lynn Rogers and Sue Mansfield, Biologists, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center

Don't understand why the previous post appears as it does. It does not look this way on facebook.

I'm sad that Hope was not very cooperative to having a collar on. They tried but didn't push it with her. I've enjoyed seeing their research develope month by month.

That's so sad.

I hate hunting with a passion. It's sad that we take the land away from wild animals and then kill them to keep the numbers in check because they have no natural habitat anymore.

The only time I think it's ever okay to kill an animal is in self-defense or if the animal is suffering. Period.

Frankly I'm tired of hearing all the garbage about "Hope" and "Lily".

Cynic, it's possible to disagree with someone's statement without calling it "garbage." I'm surprised you haven't figured this out on your own by now. Jeane's post was not garbage.

And if you're truly tired of hearing about Hope and Lily, why in the world would you open a thread titled, "Hope, the bear cub, is missing"? I suspect you opened it because you figured it would give you an excuse to spout off.

My feelings exactly Susan. If the topic being discussed is of no interest to you, then move on, keep your nasty comments to yourself for a change.

what about all the deer laying on the roads splattered for 1/2 mile ,Theres too many deer,They need thinned out ,when you get too many animals theyre mauling people,attacking,causing property problems,crops ,In
Montana they put boards weith spikes at the doors because bear bust in.Do damage.My hubby is an avid hunter he gets his permits,hes told what to shoot,Whats allowed and what isnt.
He just came back from Canada for carribou,he loves the meat,He said theres thousands and thousands of carribou were in the middle of migrating.Thousands that need to eat etc.If we saved everything there would be no room on earth for all of us.

The irony there is that humans are the reason why it grows unbalanced. So killing things is the fastest and most acceptable way to fix it rather than remedying the source. Nature balances itself between predator and prey but when you mess with it, and develop all the land, and cause animal extinctions, and take away natural habitat, and force migration, and kill with environmental pollutants, and kill off the predators or the food sources then yes it becomes unbalanced. There are tons of deer because there are no wolves or mountain lions or bears anymore because people whine about them being dangerous so they are killed off or chased off as their habitats are turned into tidy little subdivisions.

It is our way of life that is messing with nature so to fix it we have to go and kill off the extras. It's just ridiculous.

I'm not saying that hunters are evil people. I recognize *why* most of them feel the need to do it. I just don't agree, and the whole thing is just really sad to me.

I'm just so glad I'm not married to a hunter or even know anyone who hunts. You have to be a cold person to look at an animal who deserves to be here as much as you do and pull the trigger. Never mind if it's not a direct kill...let the animal wander away and suffer and bleed to death. I know so many hunter horror stories , I could write a book.

I am originally from southern IL, and most of the men in my family hunted. As I said, if someone is hunting to feed their family, that is one thing, but hunting for the sake of killing something is another. As a child, I was there when the hogs were killed for meat, and every Sunday my grandma would kill a chicken for dinner. We also ate deer, rabbit and quail. But if I had to kill my dinner, I would be a vegetarian. That said, I was fascinated with the bearcam in the den, and loved reading about the bears. I think the researchers were and are doing a valuable service. Perhaps they can find ways for humans to better coexist with wildlife. I don't think they are illegitimately trying to garner donations. The ribbons were to make the radio collars more visible, and they weren't trying to 'tame' the bears.

Alisande and others, I realize that if someone doesn't share your opinion they're supposed to not open threads or not express their opinions. That's not how it works, nor is it a philosophy I follow. Perhaps you should follow your own advice.

The fact is this bear, because of the abuse by the "Bear Center" and other names it hides behind in its fundraising efforts, promotes bears having young early in their lives. I've explained this before but some conveniently forget about it, but when bears breed too soon, they're not good mothers. This one abandoned it's cub and that's not unusual. I'm not going to go into it more because I'm not sure if some will be able to comprehend over the brainwashing of paranoia about hunting and how "cute" they are.

I don't see any posts about the poor deer that are hit by cars. They disappear too. Shouldn't they be headlines in the news and have websites devoted to them to raise money for scammers? But those deer don't have ribbons on them do they so they're not of such interest I guess.

I've never gotten into big game hunting. I used to hunt pheasants, grouse and partridge but not deer or bear. Hunting is a legitimate sport but as said, there are abusers in most anything. And yes, most *do* eat the meat and bear, I'm told by trusted sources, is excellent fare. And yes, many people, especially in the northland do feed their families from wild game. Some because of economics. Some because they prefer the taste. Some because they don't like the additives in processed food or any other number of reasons. To condemn those people is wrong. Jump on me for having an opinion if you like but why don't you jump on people who condemn like that? (Don't bother.)

Now I guess perhaps I shouldn't have said the not "politically correct" enough term "garbage", even though that's how I see it. Even though it's a perfectly innocent and innocuous term used in my area and culture and I'm supposed to be accepting to offensive phrases if it comes from other areas though they're not expected to be so accepting, and I'm not to use those terms, phrases etc that come from my locale. I should also have known there's a few (who shall remain nameless) who get up in the morning and put on cockleburr knickers and search for a chance to be offended by the slightest thing and anything said that doesn't comply with the position du jour of those who want to set the topics and positions of the forum or is something to which they can feign offense must just make their day. And of course there's always the cheerleaders who suggest it's some "shot" (pun intended) toward a poster when it's merely a commentary of opinion, intended for adults who can discuss things and share opinions. Yes, here we go, that dreaded opinion that hasn't gained pre-approval from the self-annointed powers-that-be. Sorry to disappoint you but I won't even facetiously suggest I'll request approval before stating an opinion, even though it might not always be popular, or politically correct. Maybe I should post a disclaimer from now on. But I know someone will be offended by that too!

That said, I feel constrained to point out when people use hysterical propaganda from fundraising sites as support for their positions to misrepresent facts and mislead people. It wasn't pointed out, and should be, that the "Wildlife Research Institute" used as "documentation" is nothing more than an offshoot of the Bear Center and another attempt at fundraising for these people.

To me, to hear this as a story on the purported "news" was an affront to rational people. As I was listening to it, hoping it'd end sooner I could only think that although I'm not a big-game hunter, after hearing this purshed ad-naseum over an abused bear, abused by someone searching for money, no different than any other internet scammer, spammer or otherwise, and the topic wasn't that the bears were abused, but suggesting something else was wrong and I did get a chuckle thinking a bearskin rug with ribbons on it would look kind of nice on my living room floor.

Married a hunter. Boy I don't complain when he brings a deer home. It's not cheap meat, but it saves a trip to the store.

I don't mind a bit when the deer are taken - because that is one less that I could hit.

Bulldinkie, I can tell you live in PA. Lol. No love lost here for deer. Stupid things...

You know, why in the world would they watch bears in an area where they are hunted?? Gee now, I wonder what the outcomes going to be?? Send money...

Why don't they go to a beef farm and watch all those cute young calves and see what happens to them? Or the young horses that someone raised because they wanted a foal and they end up at auction.

They are just as cute and will be food for someone.
That's life.

Yep,I go down RT 15 3 days a week theres always deer splattered everywhere.Another reason for hunting is inner breeding.I didnt know this but even farm ponds need cleaned outto prevent inner breeding.You get fish with 2 heads.
Were suppose to be smarter and know what we could do to make things better on earth.We need to do something about all these babies being born,Id be scared to have children now ,Too many people on earth.
You figure each doe has 2 babies maybe 3 a year thats alot of deer,every year.
What would people have done to eat in 1700s iof they couldnt hunt????

Do you eat veal? Talk about animal abuse!

Here is a link that might be useful: veal

This isn't the 1700's . Many kill for the thrill of killing. I'm not talking about poor people back in the mountains who need deer to feed the family. I'm talking about caged shoots in preserves where the animal can't escape. I'm talking about the extreme poaching and the killing just to watch some thing die. People who pay thousands to kill big horn sheep. Are they going to eat them? No they'll hang their heads like barbarians on the wall. I root for the animals and every time a hunter shoots himself or another hunter , I cheer for the animals. And I live in PA, the biggest hunting state in the country where opening day is a religious holiday where kids get off school. Hundred years from now, they'll look back and think what barbarians we were. .

"The fact is this bear, because of the abuse by the "Bear Center" and other names it hides behind in its fundraising efforts, promotes bears having young early in their lives."

Then I say we need to concentrate on more sex education in the den. After all, if we can teach birth control at an early stage, we have a better chance of combatting teen bear pregnancy.

LOL! magic.

Actually, I think many hunters would eat big horn sheep. Hubby went antelope hunting and we ate antelope that winter. It is delicious.
Didn't open the link, but I won't eat veal and haven't for 30 plus years. Even this meat eater has limits.

It all boils down to this guy was not a HUNTER..