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Dear friend,
What kind of person lures a black bear by setting out a barrel full of old pizza, jelly doughnuts, grease, and meat scraps, and then shoots the unsuspecting animal in the back with an arrow or a rifle?
I don’t call that hunting. I call it an ambush.
And all for a trophy.
According to a new investigation from Animal Wellness Action and the Center for a Humane Economy, it happens 10,000 times a year on our federal lands — including units of our National Park Service. That’s right: bait piles are being hauled into some of America’s most treasured landscapes so that bears — both black bears and, in Alaska, grizzlies — can be gunned down with their rump and back exposed as their head is buried in a pile of odorous, rotting food.
We cannot stand aside and let this continue. So we are sounding the alarm, and inviting sportsmen, safety advocates, and others to join animal welfare advocates to stop this reckless and dangerous practice.
A Call to End Bear Baiting on Federal Lands
Last week, U.S. Rep. Shri Thanedar (D-Mich.) introduced the Don’t Feed the Bears Act of 2025 (H.R. 4422), a federal bill to prohibit bear baiting on public lands managed by federal agencies, including the National Park Service, U.S. Forest Service, and other federal land managers.
More than 70 organizations, representing animal protection, conservation, and responsible hunting, are backing this commonsense reform. And we are proud to support it alongside ethical hunters who understand that properly regulated hunting involves respect for the prey and a common sense of fair play and decency. The hunt should not feature garbage heaps and ambush tactics.
“Baiting bears is an unfair method of hunting that exploits the natural instincts of bears,” said Rep. Thanedar in introducing this legislation. “By introducing bears to human food, the animals become more likely to enter residential areas, endangering humans and their property. I am proud to play a part in preserving our wildlife and protecting the natural order of our ecosystems.”
He's hardly alone in having a gut instinct that something is amiss with bear baiting on our federal lands.
“Baiting orphans cubs. Baiting is not hunting at all as it requires no woodsmanship skills and no empathy for the game,” said Dave Petersen, a lifelong hunter and editor of “A Hunter’s Heart.” “Baiting is a crutch for fakers and losers. Baiting gives honorable hunting a bad name.”
Ted Williams, winner of the prestigious Circle of Chiefs award from the Outdoor Writers Association of America, wrote a compelling news story for Animal Wellness Action and the Center for a Humane Economy. Posted earlier this week, “Garbaging for Bears” exposes how bear baiting defies the norms of ethical hunting and responsible wildlife management.
Defending a Critical National Park Service Rule in Alaska
The Don’t Feed the Bears Act builds upon a landmark 2024 federal rulemaking by the National Park Service, which banned bear baiting on 20 million acres of national preserves in Alaska — a rule that trophy hunters are urging the Trump Administration to overturn.
The Park Service was unequivocal in its explanation for the need for the rule:
This rule will lower the probability of visitors encountering a bait station where bears may attack to defend a food source. Further, this rule will lower the risk that bears will associate food at bait stations with humans and become conditioned to eating human-produced foods, thereby creating a public safety concern.
The idea that such baiting was ever allowed on National Park Service land defies reason and good sense.
And why are we allowing trophy hunters and commercial hunting guides to turn our federal lands — whether national preserves, national wildlife refuges, or national forests — into staged dump sites to facilitate the killing of bears for their heads and hides?
Bear baiting remains legal in 12 states, and in at least eight of those, it’s permitted on federal lands. An estimated 10,000 bears are killed over bait on federal lands each year, including lactating mothers — leaving cubs behind to die of starvation or predation. The practice is unsporting, unsafe, and unsustainable.
Let’s be clear: this is not a referendum on hunting. It’s a call to end one of the most indefensible hunting methods still allowed on our public lands.
We urge you to stand with us, with Congressman Thanedar, and with hunters who value fairness and oppose cheating and to demand an end to bear baiting on America’s public lands. Please write your federal lawmakers today in support of the Don’t Feed the Bears Act to end bear baiting on our federal lands.
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