Hunters successful in tracking down Nevada bears
By Reno Gazette-Journal
Two female bears have been harvested on the opening weekend of Nevada’s first-ever bear hunts, according to the Nevada Department of Wildlife.
NDOW spokesman Chris Healy said one bear was taken on Saturday in the foothills above Verdi.
A second bear was taken Sunday in the Pine Nut Mountains southeast of Gardnerville.
Healy said the season will be closed as soon as six female bears, or 20 bears total have been harvested.
Since NDOW biologists determined Nevada’s population of bears was stable enough to permit a hunt – and the Nevada Wildlife Commission approved the hunt – it has had vocal opposition.
Forty-one hunters drew tags for the opportunity to harvest a bear. Open areas include the Carson Range near Lake Tahoe, in the Sweetwater Range, the Pine Nut Mountains and similar areas of western Nevada.
Harvest? More like slaughter.
Geez, is Tahoe next? Give em a break!
slaughter: the act of killing; specifically : the butchering of livestock for market
2
: killing of great numbers of human beings (as in battle or a massacre) : carnage
I think the proper term is killed.
Harvest? They’re not corn. NDOW can put any spin they want on this but the bottom line it’s sport killing.
Harvest or killed: Either term works. I kill animals and harvest the meat, maybe thats the way to put it. The problem with Tahoe bears is that dressed there is over 200 lbs of meat. These are not little deer, its a huge commitment to get one dressed, processed and then store the meat.
I guess folks can argue it, but I would rather kill animals for meat than support industrial livestock production. Second, I give a lot of money to organizations that do on the ground habitat restoration. How many of you non-hunters give a penny for on the ground habitat restoration work?
Has anyone harvested on bear meat for dinner?
Killing for fun is not acceptable. Perhaps if the bears had weapons with sites so the sport hunter knew they could be in the cross hairs they’d have a different thought process.
And no Mr. Pierini, I’ve never “harvested” on bear meat nor have I known anyone who has. But I guess I’m just lacking the altruism to which the above writer John has referred.
on the Nevada side, homeowners can just put food out and blow the bears away when they waddle by. How brave is that?
Not true, Gal. You can’t discharge weapons in a residential area.
I think Nevada needs to put a stop to this killing. Of course Sandoval said it was OK. I want to smack him. Anyway, it may not be legal to discharge a weapon in a residential area, but people do anyway. Usually at other people though, not innocent bears.
Shame on you. HUNTERS
Kitten,
If you eat any meat, ever, shame on you. At least hunters have the stomach to kill what they eat. You just want to see it on a nice styrofoam(great for the planet) tray, with an expiration date. Get off your high horse
bad juju.
I will bet that less than 10% of the bears killed will be used for food by the people hunting them. I am sure most of them are for trophies, so Shame on you JMAN! Your logic falls short, you justify an unnecessary bear hunt for food? You try to shame someone for their beliefs? I know a lot of hunter who don’t have the stomach to dress their own kill. You should get off your high horse.
Big Kev, I just ate the last pack of ground bear from one we killed two years ago. Look if you don’t have the stomach to kill what you eat then fine, I can understand that, but don’t denegrate people who do. I kill, clean and process 75% of the meat that my family eats. I dont hide behind a butcher.
Its funny to hear all the negative energy put towards hunters. If you eat meat, you are paying for somebody else to kill the animal for you in a very inhuman way. When people hunt, the animals are not lined up one-by-one and simply slaughtered. Everybody is so use to buying their meat from a supermarket that they forget that somebody had to kill it in order for it to be sold.
California has allowed over 1500 bears per year to be hunted, including in Lake Tahoe. This is nothing new.
One point here, I have a lot of respect for vegetarians, they have a commitment to their convictions. I admire that and readily admit I couldn’t do it. It drives me crazy that people eat meat and point fingers at hunters. To me thats the lowest a person can go, they talk bad about taking an animals life but then hire someone else to do the killing. To me that is disgusting. At least I have enough respect for the animal to look the animal in the eyes when I pull the trigger. The animals blood is on my hands, not some butcher in a factory.
Bear hunting facts for the discussion:
– 27 states allow bear hunting
– California harvested or killed over 1500 bears in 2010. See the report at the following address.www.dfg.ca.gov/wildlife/hunting/bear/mgmtandharvest.html.
I don’t hunt (not my cup of tea) but it seems hunting as one element of a manangement plan is used in a lot of states. It’s clear that the bigger issue is not hunting of bears but of of hunting in general is one that has passionate views on both sides.
@John, I’m with you 100%. What is next, protesting taking fish out of the lake? Hunting is the right of everyone in our nation. I hunted as a youth, taking wild pigs and goats, always eating what we killed. In Hawaii I fished for my dinner, I fail to see the difference between the 2 methods of feeding ones self. The point that some make that it is only thrill killing or sport hunting, oh well. That is only their opinion. Ideally every hunter should eat what they kill. Since when do we live in an ideal society? If this is such a big issue to you, do something about it instead of spouting hot air here. Remember, this is a LEGAL state sanctioned hunt. If you don’t like it change it.
Harvested? You mean killed needlessly. For those six females they may kill, what happens to their cubs? They will wander around until they slowly starve and die.
Yeah, that’s real wildlife management. What a joke.
Nice euphemism, harvest? What a joke! The bears don’t have a snowballs chance!
It’s not really about who kills what and when and blood on who’s knife and looking at the animal in the eye before killing it and all that heartwarming hunter culture Hollywood blah blah.
It’s about killing less WILD things. End of story.
Kill less, feel better, it’s that easy.
The veges came out in force. It is true that all the anti-hunting comments are from the “I don’t eat animal flesh”,veges.” Sure. How many hypocrites in the above comment writers.
Makes me sick! It would just be nice if we could all respect eachother.
This “sport hunting” is really not sporting at all. Might as well hunt from satellite. Dogs with GPS collars — come on guys! And as for bear meat, I’d rather eat beef or chicken any day. You are right though, I don’t want to meet my dinner before I eat it. Maybe that makes me a hypocrite; so be it. Seems like we have a lot more cows and chickens than bears.
So far, the bears “taken” have been outside of the Tahoe area. I am curious as to if these female bears were ever considered “problem bears” by the local communities/NVDOW. They seem to think that the hunt will eliminate those bears. If no one hunts in Tahoe then their plan/assumptions are wrong, and they should go back to the drawing board as to why this hunt is being allowed in the first place.
On another note, I just want to say that I’ve worked with individuals over the years who have hunted, and some who only ate the meat of animals that they “harvested” out of personal respect for the creature.
As a society, we are so out of touch with were our supermarket hamburger meat comes from. My personal opinion is that if you can’t personally “kill” the animal that you are going to consume then you have no business eating meat. Everyone should try it at least once in their life.But, of course, the FDA doesn’t allow visitors to the meat processing plants in this country. So there’s a missed out experience for the human meat consumer.
Ain’t it great? Settin’ at the top of the food chain, abusin’ each other over our beliefs and our choices…. Yep, life is good when you know you’re unlikely to get shot or eaten. We should be right proud of ourselves for havin’ the good sense to be born human.
Here is a great reason to end the bear hunt, the hunters don’t know what they are shooting. And notice this guy is from nevada.
http://news.yahoo.com/grizzly-bear-kills-hunter-montana-020629994.html
And, GOOD BEAR!