Save the McNeil River brown bears!

The decision to allow the brown bears- protected for decades, and so tame that they have absolutely no fear of human beings- on Alaska's McNeil River State Wildlife Sanctuary to be hunted is nothing less than disgraceful.

Ok. I admit that I personally don't see the sport in hunting. I've only done it once (for coyotes, in rural Nebraska), and frankly I hated it. Killing things simply does not give me, personally, a thrill, and in fact the idea of doing it for fun gives me the creeps. But I do not condemn hunters out of hand- and especially those who, like deer hunters here in Iowa, hunt for meat (even meat they don't strictly need as a part of their diet). Even trophy hunting, where animals have a chance to make use of their normal instincts and survival skills, is something I can understand.

But where is the sport in shooting tame bears? I would think that hunters themselves would be up in arms about this particular proposal. Anybody who would participate in such a "hunt" would be somebody I would think real hunters- sportsmen- would be embarassed to have numbered among them.