Spring Bear Hunting - Sample Letter to Your Legislator #1

(Remember to edit this letter and make it your own. Letters make a bigger impact on legislators if they are not identical to others.)

[Date]

Dear [Legislator’s Name],

I am writing to ask your help in bringing an end to a cruel and unsporting practice that takes place in the woods of our state each year – the hunting of bears in the spring.

Bear cubs remain with the mothers for more than a year, wintering with them after their first year of life, and sometimes staying with them even longer. All bear hunting can result in cubs being orphaned, but cubs are more likely to be orphaned, and far more likely to die when orphaned, when bears are hunted in the spring. Sows often leave their young cubs tucked away safely in a tree while they forage for food, often some distance away. Though it may be illegal to kill a sow accompanied by cubs, the hunter would have no way of knowing that she even has cubs, waiting patiently somewhere for her to return. 

Cubs are still nursing at the time spring bear hunting takes place and are completely dependent on their mothers for survival. According to Lynn Rogers, PhD, a hunter and retired research biologist for the U.S. Forest Service, “where there is no bear hunting in spring, there are few orphans.”

Lynn Rogers also says that “cubs orphaned in the spring cannot survive without human help.” He says that orphans can only survive between a few hours and 30 days, depending on the date, their development, weather and food availability, but that they will ultimately die. He details the sad and slow death that orphaned cubs succumb to, at first crying for their mothers, then growing too weak to even move. 

The hunting of bears in the spring is a practice that ought to be halted immediately.

Thank you for your time and consideration of this important issue.

Sincerely,

[Name]
[Address]