Spring black bear hunts in WA are cruel and misguided. It’s time for the state to end them

There is something plainly unsporting about killing an animal who has just emerged from months of hibernation and no sustenance merely for a rec room trophy, just as there is something palpably wrong with the killing of nursing mothers and their newborn cubs. But that’s precisely the sort of mayhem and cruelty the Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission will support should it authorize another spring bear hunt at its November 19 meeting.

Washington may not lead the pack in the number of bears killed annually in trophy hunts (it’s number 11 on that grim register of 32 states), but it is one of just four states that allow both spring bear hunting and the hunting of bears of any age, leading to the increased risk of cubs being killed directly by hunters or being orphaned when their mothers are killed.

A state that prides itself on innovation, and with such diversity of backgrounds and views among our citizenry, really shouldn’t suffer such a brutal and outdated hunt, especially as non-consumptive perspectives concerning Washington’s beloved wild spaces and wildlife are gaining ground. It’s simply right that wildlife management be informed by a wider range of views, primarily those that prioritize conservation and our scientific understanding of wildlife population dynamics over the desire of a select few to trophy hunt animals. Commissioner Barbara Baker’s recent introduction of a Conservation Policy Guide is an example of emphasizing the protection of our state’s biodiversity through science. Using that approach as the guiding principle for wildlife management decisions is welcome and timely.

Those who favor trophy hunting and spring bear hunts, in Washington and elsewhere, are well aware of their loss of ground, even in Western states. A 2019 National Shooting Sports Foundation survey found that less than a third of Americans approve of hunting for a trophy (less than a quarter of residents in our Western states), and just 20% approve of spring bear hunts (15% in our Western states).

Trophy hunting seriously threatens black bears and their social structure because of their slow reproduction rates and the fact that they provide extended care to their young. During Washington’s spring bear hunt, female bears are killed, leaving newborns to die from starvation or predation and older cubs to die from conflict-related causes.

Bears are an interesting case study for the evolution of an approach to wildlife management policy that gives greater weight to the values and ideas of the non-hunting majority. Bears are highly intelligent, charismatic and ecologically valuable animals, and they stand at the heart of our wildlife tourism industry, where they’re certainly worth more alive than dead.

Washington’s wildlife commission has already demonstrated its willingness to align our state’s wildlife management with evolving public values and sound science by ending cruel and unsporting wildlife killing contests. Ending spring bear hunting would be a great next step.

Next spring, we should allow bears to recover their strength and care for their newborn young in peace, and not sanction a frenzied and heartless trophy hunt that forces them to run for their very lives.

Jennifer Hillman is the Vice President of Wildlife Protection with the Humane Society of the United States. She lives in Seattle.