The hippies are taking over my Birth State
About 2 or 3 years ago I was dumpster diving at Democratic Underground when I came upon a thread about cops shooting some guy who had a gun. One DUmmy wanted to know why the cops didn’t just shoot the gun out of the guys hand. I must have laughed about DUmmy marksmanship for months.
Well, seems they have now infiltrated Maine. Short story: 150 lbs Bear wanders into a populated area, across a golf course, 911 calls flood in. So the game warden shows up and shoots the bear. Carcas is given to some Indian Tribe. Story over.
Nope, everyone is second guessing the game warden.
Evan of Bangor, ME (07/20/08)
This is nothing short of an absolute disgrace- even if the bear was getting agitated, the Warden could have EASILY kept his shotgun trained on the animal or asked police to do the same until tranquilizers were obtained, and if he was at least half-fit for his job the Warden should have had darts readily available anyway given he’d been called out to check on a wandering bear. This kind of easily-avoided killing of one of the rarest forms of wildlife we are lucky enough to have residing in Maine is just dumb and tragic.
Evan for Game Warden. Bears will never steal pic-i-nic baskets again, because he will reason with them!
Randy of Bangor, ME (07/20/08)
Amazing, lethal force is used first before we even attempt a tranquilizer dart. Animals including bears are forced out of their natural homes for many reasons, they end up in places they are not known to be such as the city. But when a wild animal is spotted it seems nowadays the tranquillizer is no longer in option when all it seemed to be doing was wandering around. Yes the bear was wandering around because it was lost, hungry, etc. This must be why the State or govt’s discourage keeping wild animals as pets…if they got loose or lost they just shoot em! That is pretty disappointing and rather pathetic. If that bear was mulling someone, or threatening people, perhaps just like a Police Officer should do with people, but with animals…it’s a whole different thing.
Maine is fuggin gigantic if you haven’t been there, and there ain’t all that many folk there. It has a population of 41.3/sq mi. By way of comparison, South Carolina has 143.4/sq mi. I think the bears have plenty of places they could call home, Bangor not being one of them.
Randy of Bangor, ME (07/20/08)
To the people criticizing us for criticizing the game warden: If you are lost, confused, looking to get back home and you stop at the gas station and ask for directions does the clerk shoot you? When someone sees a wild animal the reaction is to shoot it. A woman supposedly has a snake in her wash machine, oh nobody would touch that, of course not but the animal could have been dangerous. If the article verified the bear was mulling people when the game warden arrived, yes there was justifcation to be shot. But because the bear was wandering around, lost because people like us invade their natural homes Wardens shoot them anyways. The Warden needs a better education (assuming the report is accurate as far as the bear was not hurting anyone) on how to do his job, and no I don’t need anyone to tell me how to do mine because we have ignorant people like this thinking they know how to do it anyways!
Randy, when was the last time someone went into a store to ask directions and thn mauled the clerk? Go watch that bear dude get eaten and you may see a difference between a bear and a girl in a sun-dress who missed the exit for Portland.
Kathy of Tilden, TX (07/21/08)
Another one of the Creator’s precious children killed because of the inconcenience she caused. But considering Maine law enforcement’s record with the state’s human inhabitants; the bear never had a chance.
Kathy, please stay in Texas.
UPDATE: The greatest blogger in Maine, the incomparable Slublog informs me that he lives quite close to this incident. He also says that:
The guy had no choice – they’re not allowed to carry tranquilizers due to federal drug laws, but even if they had and used them – how cruel would it be to take a bear accustomed to living near easy city food and put it in the wilderness.
Category: Politics
I’m interested to know what happens when a bear “mulls” someone.
mull
–verb (used without object)
1. to study or ruminate; ponder.
–verb (used with object)
2. to think about carefully; consider (often fol. by over): to mull over an idea.
And why should the police shoot a bear because of it?
Whoa! I guess no one should tell these people about the quest in Warcraft where you have to kill 30 of “the Creator’s children” and turn their pelts in for an awesome ranged weapon with 130 DPS.
Maine game warden job description “preserve the heritage and wildlife of Maine”Can’t this gun slinger read his s.o.p. manual?What’s hippies got to do with this?
TSO: Where’d you get that? I am on the Maine Warden Service right now and it specifically mentions dealing with “nuisance wildlife” which, I think a bear walking through a populated area would qualify. Hippies was a reference to the people that want to reason with the animal and express outrage it was shot. Apparently they believe that a tranquilized bear drops on the spot, not so much. I love bears as much as anyone, but pissed off bear and people around is not a great mixture.
richard wheeler,
Hippies say they want to save the world, but all they really do is smoke pot and smell bad.
“Yes the bear was wandering around because it was lost, hungry, etc.”
They forgot to add “oppressed” to their list of demands…
Can’t be a progressive unless somebody or somebear is being oppressed.
TSO I stand corrected Texas game warden job description “protect Texas wildlife,other natural resources and the environment”Bottom line ,I think you’d agree ,is game warden’s job is to protect and preserve human and animal life.
TSO: Of course dude. I doubt the guy wanted to pop a bear. But given a pissed off bear, I will generally take dropping it to waiting for it to eat one of the 50 schlubs standing around watching.
Okay where do I begin….
“The Warden needs a better education (assuming the report is accurate as far as the bear was not hurting anyone) on how to do his job, and no I don’t need anyone to tell me how to do mine because we have ignorant people like this thinking they know how to do it anyways!”
First: OMG are you just stupid! What the hell are you talking about! Who knows what your talking about? I bet your a teacher Randy. Right?
Second Game Wardens are trained in handling “the Creator’s children”. Which comes first in my book between my children and a mad bear? My kids win everytime Randy.
Do us all a favor and buy a cabin out in the woods and invite all the poor bears you want to live with you and see how freaking long you last. I will put money on around lunch and you will be the main course.
If the “schlubs” are stupid enough “to stand around watching” I say bon appetite.
The bear or human life?? Hmmmmmmm. I guess I am going to go with, “Depends on the human.” Who is it/ What were they doing? And did the bear have a license to hunt humans out of season?
Thats my final answer.
TSO: Funny you should ask. After his untimely demise, it was discovered that the Bear was actually a Paulian, and believed like Rooney that the state is a manufactured entity which deprives us of everything we need to excel. Thus, in a display of rEVOLutionary zeal, he was hunting humans without the license, which he felt violated freedoms which were given by the creator.
TSO: ROTFLMAO
I KNEW IT!!! See I can see right through those nutroot bears.
You are all missing the point. This could easily have been a POLAR BEAR!!! Poor lil’ thing, floating off helplessly on his tiny little chunk of melted Ice-Shelf while Momma Bear and the Cubs cry for him from their ever dwindling Habitat, only to wash up on the shore near Crabapple Cove where he is brutally gunned down by a Bible Toting (Presumeably), angry White Guy. I have a soft spot for Polar Bears, just ask Cousin Scott.
Still, the thought comes to mind, aren’t “Tranquilizer Darts” fired from…..ewwwww!…CO2 Cartridges?! What is the Carbon Footprint of a Shot-Gun Shell compared to that? Ohhh, there are indeed so many gray areas here.
Well, I ain’t in Maine, but I do have a black bear playing with my deer feeders. It ain’t ‘mulling’ (or mauling) anyone I know of.
However, if I catch up to it I aim to kill and eat it. Won’t be calling for state help, nor the press. NB: I don’t have a tranquilizer thing unless I can talk it into drinking beer.
Yummmmm. I will have to bother someone for a recipe though. Haven’t had bear in years.
pondorf: Bear roast in the slow cooker with vegies. The best!
Uh, yeah. That little creation of God’s wasn’t put here to mingle with human children, any more than a king cobra was. A few of God’s other little precious children are called the bubonic plague, poison ivy, streptococcus, and malignant brain tumors. But as long as those aren’t hurting you, at that moment, don’t think twice about them.
Beam me up.
“This kind of easily-avoided killing of one of the rarest forms of wildlife we are lucky enough to have residing in Maine is just dumb and tragic.”
Black bears are only rare in Maine if your most extreme experience with the outdoors is sitting on the rustic pine couch at Starbucks.
There is no doubt that when there is ongoing friction between wildlife and humans where their habitats overlap, the wildlife will ultimately lose. Clearly, the game warden is there to ease the friction, but they are human too, and there will be debate about individual actions. If you want to get into a debate about whether we should be eating animals at all, then you are really opening a can of worms.
Bill said:
Black bears are only rare in Maine if your most extreme experience with the outdoors is sitting on the rustic pine couch at Starbucks.
So true! My brother in-law is a big-time hunter and he’s traveled to Maine several times to hunt for black bear and he’s always successful. Maine has approximately 23,000 bears.
TSO: My Dad was telling me that my 16 year old female cousin got a Deer, Moose and Bear permit last year. She got all three apparently and made the paper for it. The bears really aren’t that rare up there. Neither are the Moose. What is rare is the “Moose X-ing” signs since everyone from New York visiting steals the damn things. Ok, maybe other states too, but everyone knows those New Yorkers are nefarious bastards. Well, atleast the city folk. Cortland, NY and thereabouts exempted from this diatribe, since I am playing golf there next week.