Bear Baiting - Sample Letter to the Editor #1

(Remember to edit this letter and make it your own. Letters are more likely to be printed if they are not identical to others.)

[Date]

To the Editor,

There is an unsporting and dangerous practice taking place in [Your State] each hunting season called bear baiting, and it ought to be banned.  

Instead of trekking through the woods in search of an animal, hunters who bait bears simply set out food, usually piles of jelly donuts or rotting meat, and wait for a bear to approach so they can shoot her in the back while she eats her last meal. 

Though wildlife agencies always provide the public with warnings such as “don’t feed the bears” and “a fed bear is a dead bear,” there seems to be a double standard for bear baiters. While some bears are killed as soon as they begin taking the bait, others, perhaps those deemed inadequate to grace the hunter’s trophy room wall, are allowed to feed throughout the hunting season. Having learned to look for food around humans, these animals often become nuisance bears who come into backyards, turn over garbage cans, and pose a threat to companion animals. . 

Although hunters claim to adhere to the principle of “fair chase,” bear baiting is an ambush, not a chase, and there is nothing fair about it. It ought to be halted immediately.

Sincerely,

[Name]
[Title]
[Local group]