Bear Baiting and Hounding

Bear baiting and hounding with GPS-collared dog packs inflicts prolonged stress on bears before they are shot, a method that kills roughly 40,000 bears annually across US states like Alaska and Wisconsin. Scientific studies show baited bears are 50% more likely to be shot than unbaited ones, undermining fair chase ethics. This practice is more controversial than bird trapping with lime sticks (#8) because it targets apex predators essential to forest ecosystems, yet defenders argue it reduces human-bear conflicts by 30% in managed areas. The use of dogs to tree bears, followed by point-blank rifle shots, creates a 35% higher wounding rate than other hunting methods, intensifying criticism from animal welfare groups. Unlike the Faroe Islands Grindadráp (#5), which is defended as subsistence, bear baiting is condemned as pure entertainment, drawing comparisons to canned hunts that erode hunting’s conservationist reputation.