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John,
The Missouri Department of Conservation is set to open a trophy hunting season on the state’s still-recovering population of black bears. This proposal is a disaster for these bears and unspeakably cruel:
- It’s not founded in science and instead caters to a small minority of trophy hunters
- The proposal allows the killing of unaccompanied cubs, meaning that trophy hunters can kill bear cubs who have been separated from their mothers, which is prohibited by most states
- Hunting bears does not resolve human-bear conflicts, according to scientific studies.
Missouri’s bears should be safeguarded, not hunted. They need protected areas and safe migration corridors if they are to endure for future generations.
We’ve fought for black bears before and won significant victories to protect them. In 1989, the Animal Legal Defense Fund successfully sued to stop California’s annual black bear hunt. The following year, we won another lawsuit in the state to halt the bear bowhunting season. Now our fight to protect bears from the cruelest forms of hunting continues in Missouri.
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We’re also at work in other states like New Jersey to end future black bear trophy hunts, and Alaska where the National Park Service issued a new rule allowing hunters to shoot vulnerable mother bears and cubs in their dens. Now, the Fish and Wildlife Service is planning to open Alaska’s Kenai National Wildlife Refuge to bear baiting — allowing even more killing of grizzly bears. This plan:
- Flies in the face of the purpose of a refuge, where all animals should be safe
- Rolls back bans on some of the cruelest hunting methods, like shooting bears after baiting them with food
- Artificially inflates the moose and caribou populations so hunters can kill even more animals.
Our Stop the Hunt campaign aims to end canned hunting and trophy hunting. Your donation now can support our legal fights for wildlife and all our efforts to protect animals from cruelty, so please give today.
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For the animals,
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Stephen Wells
Executive Director
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This email was sent to [email protected].
© 2020 Animal Legal Defense Fund
525 East Cotati Avenue, Cotati, CA 94931 | (707) 795-2533 |
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