Successful Bear Advocacy Through Positive Educational Outreach
From Steve Stringham - 2 Mar 2008
Dear All, There is no easy way to deal with the issues
of hunting bears, much less milking them for bile. Our best hope on the
bile trade is substituting some kind of manufactured bile. But, so far,
the market has not endorsed any substitutes for the "real" thing, as
though the terrible suffering of the "milked" and slaughtered bears
somehow makes bile more potent. Until a better option opens up, we keep
trying the substitute angle, while continuing to shut down bile farms.
As to sport hunting: as much as we might like to hit
the issue head on, it would only give us brain concussions. The brick
wall would still be standing. The most effective strategy I know is the
one Charley Russel, Lynn Rogers, Sue Mansfield, and a handful of other
people have taken: getting to know bears as individuals, coming to
really understand these fellow beings, and sharing our insights with the
public by videos, writings, photos, and live viewing. I have shown bears
at Katmai and other locations to numerous hunters. Most arrived drooling
over the giant boars, wishing they could bag one. Yet, few left feeling
anything but awe and appreciation for the bears, saying how they had
totally misunderstood the nature of these "animals."
The sooner we can credibly shift public perception of
bears from monsters to fellow beings, the sooner public attitudes will
start breaking down the brick edifices that support trophy hunting of
bruins.
Also essential is starting protective measures with
those bear populations and individuals that are quite friendly to
people, before trying to extend the battlelines to more isolated bears
that are far less tolerant of people, or to situations where bear-human
encounters are extremely dangerous.
Steve Stringham
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