The International Fund for Animal Welfare is reporting the following on bear hunting in Russia....Hunting for bears with young cubs is illegal in Russia, but the rule is not enforced for hibernating bears.
......under the proposed new regulations, hunters will be permitted to shoot cubs if they discover they have killed the mother in the den.
There are so many things wrong with these two sentences, it's hard to know where to begin. First of all, I just don't understand why you can't kill wide-awake bears with cubs, but you can kill hibernating bears with cubs. It can't be for the benefit of the bears. They are sitting targets when they are hibernating. It must be to protect the almighty hunter. They have a cleaner and safer shot when the bear is hibernating. Otherwise, a mother protecting her young may actually be dangerous and create conditions for a fair fight.
The other is the issue of killing babies. Now, someone could argue that it's "humane" to kill the cubs because they are now motherless and may die from abandonment. But I refuse to be that dismissive and analytical. Because these are BABIES. That is heartless to me. Even though bear hunting is a tradition in Russia, to kill a baby bear is unfathomable to me. I wouldn't even want to meet the hunter who could do it.
Of course, they probably hunt baby seals too so it wouldn't really phase them a bit.
Photo by animalrescueblog.
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