What is bear hounding? Hounding involves hunters and guides using packs of radio-collared hounds to pursue bears until the exhausted, frightened animals seek refuge in a tree (where they are shot) or turn to fight the hounds. Hounding results in injuries or death to both bears and dogs and leaves...
As black bear numbers increase in some North American communities and more people move into bear habitat, encounters between bears and people have risen. Whether you live in bear country or are just visiting, you can take simple steps to avoid conflicts. Why bears lose their fear of humans Bears...
What is bear baiting? Bear baiting involves intensive feeding of black bears to make them easier targets of trophy hunters waiting nearby. It occurs typically weeks in advance of hunting seasons to accustom bears to feeding in a certain area. Hunters stack donuts, candy, grease, rotting garbage...
It started in 2002: The bears around Durango, Colorado, came down from the hills to feast on the city’s garbage. Normally, natural food—nuts and berries and acorns—keeps them in the woods, but a series of droughts and late freezes in 2002, 2007, 2012 and 2017 left them hungry. Despite their fear of...
TRENTON, New Jersey ─Today, the New Jersey Division of Fish and Wildlife’s Fish and Game Council reinstated its controversial black bear trophy hunt. The emergency rulemaking that the council used circumvents standard procedures requiring appropriate notice of the action to the public and the...
In an important grizzly bear recovery zone and wildlife corridor in Montana’s Yaak Valley, another 315 acres of vital habitat for grizzly bears and other wildlife are now a permanently protected safe haven. You can take pride in your support of a land trust that helps keep such wildlands safe for...
Editor's note: The attribution of the quote contributed by the U.S. Forest Service was corrected on June 8. MERLIN, Ore.—The Wild and Scenic Lower Rogue River and Rogue River National Recreation Trail draw tens of thousands of visitors annually to enjoy recreational activities including rafting...
INDIANAPOLIS—Indiana’s law prohibiting direct public contact with big cats and bears goes into effect on July 1. Implementation of this law brings much needed protection for some of the animals who have been subjected to public handling and forced to live in abysmal facilities in the state...
Washington wildlife commissioners vote against spring 2022 trophy hunt of black bears and their cubs
Today, the Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission voted to set aside a spring black bear trophy hunt in 2022, acknowledging widespread public opposition to the hunt. Thousands of people submitted written and oral comments to the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife and the Commission to...
TRENTON, New Jersey ─ Today, a coalition of state and national animal protection groups including Animal Protection League of New Jersey, the Humane Society of the United States and Friends of Animals, launched an emergency court challenge to the black bear trophy hunt that is scheduled to begin Dec...
The atmosphere is often bustling at our care and rehabilitation center in Maryland, a haven for animals rescued from cruelty, neglect and disasters, where they take their first steps toward a second chance and a loving home. Bear, a 2-year-old Alaskan Malamute mix, was one of approximately 40 dogs...
Depending on where you live, your wild neighbors are probably on the small side: squirrels, geese, songbirds, maybe the occasional deer. In some parts of the United States, though, we’re lucky enough to share our land with North America’s native carnivores. Wolves, black bears and mountain lions...
A long time ago, when Stephen Slack was just five or six, he went hunting with his father for pheasants and ducks in the Iowa countryside around their home. Back then it was not about trophies; it was not a single-minded pursuit of awards for killing animals. Instead, Slack remembers early mornings...
Maryland legislators have introduced three bills to improve wildlife management and coexistence in the state. These bills promote humane coexistence with black bears, increase the diversity of voices and scientific input in the state’s wildlife policymaking process, and improve the procedure for...
BOISE, Idaho—Ten conservation groups filed a lawsuit today challenging Idaho’s extreme wolf-trapping rules, which facilitate the slaughter of up to 90% of Idaho’s gray wolf population. The lawsuit contends that continued and expanded wolf trapping and snaring will injure and kill non-target grizzly...
A shocking undercover investigation recently conducted in Iowa by the Humane Society of the United States and Humane Society International found what can only be described as a massive garbage bin of the trophy hunting industry. A four-day event where thousands of animals – including at least 557...