Baiting continues unabated
When the
Forest Service announced last year that it would write a new policy
regulating bear baiting, environmentalists and animal rights
advocates were hopeful. They thought the agency might take a hard
look at the controversial practice of laying out rotting foods to
attract bears within shooting distance. But the new policy,
announced March 17, continues the Forest Service’s practice of
letting states regulate bear baiting on national forest. It also
means bear baiting can resume on the national forests of Wyoming,
where a series of lawsuits forced the Forest Service to ban the
practice pending a new national policy (HCN, 12/12/94). Opponents
blasted the new rules. “It is obvious that the actual purpose of
the policy is to remove the Forest Service from the controversy
over baiting and to exempt the practice of baiting from any review
under federal environmental laws,” said Wayne Pacelle of the Humane
Society of the United States in a letter to Forest Service Chief
Jack Ward Thomas. For a copy of the new policy, contact Alan Polk
of the Forest Service at
202/205-1134.
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Baiting continues unabated.
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