Bear Baiting
In New Hampshire, it is legal to hunt bears using bait, a practice prohibited in all but a handful of states.
Bear baiting is the use of food or other enticement to lure bears to a site where hunters wait to kill them. Junk food is a popular bait, but commercial “bear attractants” also exist. One New Hampshire hunting store reached out to customers to promote its large inventory of bear bait, which included tubs of cake frosting and 55-gallon drums of caramel sauce.
“It’s not fair or ethical to bait wild animals with sweet-smelling food and then shoot them…” — Center for Biological Diversity
Most of the bears hunted in New Hampshire are killed over bait. During the 2019 hunting season, 54% of the bears killed by hunters were killed over bait.
From the NH Fish and Game Department’s hunting statistics for 2019:
“Continued increased participation in baiting and hound hunting has been evident for several years and has resulted in a declining percentage of the annual harvest taken via still hunting.” — NH Fish & Game
An Inconsistent Message — At the same time that the Department permits bear baiting, they regularly issue public notices urging residents and tourists to eliminate bear attractants, by securing garbage, removing bird feeders, and so on.
From a notice issued by NH Fish and Game on July 31, 2020:
“Bears are much better off in the wild, and we need to do our part to not entice them near people with food attractants… Finally, never deliberately feed bears. You will be encouraging these animals to rely on human-related foods which will deteriorate their wild behavior and reduce their chances of survival.” — NH Fish & Game