The video above asks viewers to reject the proposal to turn over grizzly bear management from Uncle Sam to the northern Rocky Mountain states.

“Ultimately, it may come down to an ethical judgment regarding whether hunting of species like grizzly bears is appropriate to begin with,” Ohio Sate University professor Jeremy Bruskotter asserts in the video. “We have really good public data that suggests that while people are generally supportive of hunting, they are not supportive of trophy hunting.”

What about you? For it or agin’ it?

66 COMMENTS

  1. As long as good game management policies are followed, why not? I don’t hunt myself, but if someone wants to spend thousands of dollars get a trophy grizzly bear, go for it.

  2. Griz tastes good, same as any bear. I would love the trophy of a nice bruin to be a rug and the freezer full of bear sausage to go with.

      • It’s very good tasting. I’m enjoying mine from this fall. And the summer sausage made from it is really tasty!

    • I’d love to try bear and maybe someday, go out and hunt one, bank account permitting… But I heard brown bear is one to avoid as far as eating goes… Anyone know if that’s true?

  3. I think the drive to “Chase horns” is silly, but as long as it is part of a sound management plan, I guess I am o.k. with it. I hunt because I like the outdoors, the taste of venison and elk and as an opportunity to spend time with family and friends. I prefer to use a bow to stall my quarry so that I have to get close and use my stalking skills

  4. I’m not one of those rabid moonbats who puts the lives of animals above human beings, so by all means, go hunt as many trophy animals as you can afford. All I ask is that any unwanted meat be donated to soup kitchens, impoverished local villagers, etc

    • so you are for the complete eradication of a species…for nothing more than to fill your bored time? wow

      • That’s a good point. I saw him say at least seven times that he’s for the complete eradication of entire species. Plus he mentioned being bored as the sole reason at least five times. Got him!

      • *Enviromarxist troll detected*
        I don’t trophy hunt, but to argue that an entire species will go extinct because of it, especially today when not that many people around the world even legally hunt, is lunacy. Besides, if I woke up tomorrow and found out elephants or grizzly bears had gone extinct, I wouldn’t shed a tear. Plenty of species have and will disappear per the history of planet earth. It’s a simple fact I long ago accepted.

  5. These anti-hunting groups are a plague in this country. This reminds me of the issues they had a New Jersey a couple of years ago. The problem was they had whitetail deer getting into these rural subdivisions and eating up people’s grass their shrubbery and pretty much destroying their Landscaping. So they decided to legalize hunting in these subdivisions and surrounding areas to cut back on the deer population that was basically exploding in that area. Soon as this caught wind of the animal activist they protested raised all kinds of hell at City Hall and tell they put in stop to the program they were beginning to start with legal hunting of these animals to control the population and in turn keep them out of people’s yards eating their bushes and shrubs. These moronic animal activist came up with the idea that they would tranquilize Dart these deer and then transport them by helicopter to a much more rural area. Sounds good in theory but then again you have a bunch of animal activist who have no idea what the hell a gun is and how to safely use one. The first deer they shot with their tranquilizer gun they killed with an overdose of animal tranquilizer the deer went into respiratory failure and died within 15 minutes of being shot. The second deer was shot using less tranquilizer and it awoke being transported in the air by the helicopter and became so frantic and freaked out about waking up being a hundred feet off the ground and a papoose type harness it kicked itself out of the harness and fell to its death. Neither of these animals were able to be consumed or donated to a food bank because of the tranquilizer in their bloodstream. A complete waste of animal life and they didn’t serve any purpose in Saving any deer whatsoever. Instead they wasted over $20,000 between the helicopter rides and the tranquilizer dart experimental project of b******* and after that they gave up. Another absolute waste of money and time by the anti-gunners and anti-hunters they’re one in the same. Just so everyone knows the hunting they were approving was bow and crossbow hunting no firearms you know it’s New Jersey. LOL

  6. I’ve said it before and I will say it again, hunting is not a sport. I am all for hunting to put food on the table and to manage wildlife populations, and I have no qualms with using the most effective weapons available. However, trophy hunting, or any killing for that matter, that is all about the “sport” is disgusting. Killing a grizzly to protect yourself? No problem. Killing a grizzly because it is threatening your livestock (and therefore livelihood), no problem. Killing a grizzly to eat it (bear meat is tasty), no problem. Killing a grizzly just for the sake of stuffing it and putting it in your den? Absolutely deplorable. I don’t have a problem with mounting and displaying kills that were taken for the right reasons. Motives matter. I.e., if you fly half way across the world to go kill a lion that never did anything to you (and who eat’s lion?), you are one sad POS.

    • Ok, it’s now established that you don’t like trophy hunting, that’s quite clear.

      So don’t trophy hunt. Problem (such as it is) solved, yes?

      • wow you are stupid. so by that logic since i don’t like child porn, if don’t do it, the problem is solved for the entire world? see how stupid that is? of course you don’t

    • Obviously you’re not familiar with hunting in Africa and how it helps the indigenous people survive. When you go to hunt in Africa dangerous game like lions or elephants or will their beasts you pay through the nose for the tags to legally hunt them you pay through the nose for a guide which is a local villager that works for the company you’ve hired to take you on the Safari. All meat that is shot is given to the villagers which they prepare and feed many dozen families for the entire year off of one person shooting one elephant. The only thing the trophy hunter gets is the hide and head of the elephant no ivory and he then gives that to the taxidermist on-site or has it freeze and shipped back to the US to a taxidermist here. These Hunters bring in absolutely lifeblood to these indigenous tribes in Africa. They spend millions of dollars every year to participate in this sport hunting’s. Everyone benefits from this type of hunting. Africa as a country benefits from the tourism plus all the fees they charge for the hunting permits licensing and tags local gun shops or Sporting Goods Outfitters Supply ammunition clothing transportation lodging and many other aspects of the Safari. It’s a very very expensive trip to go on Safari in Africa to take big game or any game for that matter. You cannot import non-indigenous meat into this country so it does us no good to try and smuggle buffalo meat back into this country it’s much more beneficial to the local indigenous tribes people to be given this food for them to feed their families. I saw a program where they showed one elephant that was trophy hunted that an entire Village for one year. Not to mention having to hire trackers and Scouts from that Village to leave them on their Safari. This is a win-win situation.

    • When lion hunting is banned, do you think the lions are left alone? No, the locals kill them all because they are killing their livestock.
      Now, a Trophy Hunter will pay thousands of dollars to take a lion, so the livestock losses are recovered by the locals.
      No trophy hunting, no compensation for killed livestock means a loss for the villagers so it is in their best interest to kill the lions themselves or allow poachers to do it.

    • You may have said it before and you can say it as many times as you like and it will still not become truth. Hunting IS a sport for some of us. Not me personally, I don’t hunt. But if some sad POS as you call them doesn’t fly halfway around the world to kill a lion, that lion has no value at all. For locals it becomes a nuisance instead of source of income. They will have no incentive to keep lions alive and poison them all. Stopping hunting is sure way to get rid of the hunted species.

  7. Regardless of the reason they are hunted, I think they need to be hunted to keep the population in control. These nutjobs would think differently if the bears were near them . Who would want to live near an overpopulation of hungry bears. It is the reverse NIMBY senario.

  8. The perp only had his hands and a bottle. He didn’t deserve to be shot. If the victim had a gun, he would have been using more force than necessary against a bottle.

    Right?

    • A bottle can be a deadly weapon Sam officers call throwing a bottle at someone throwing a deadly projectile or missile at someone I’ve seen this charge before where some girls coming back from Daytona Beach on spring break through a tennis shoe at another group of girls in a car and they got charged with throwing a deadly projectile slash missile is how the law sees it so if somebody goes to throw a beer bottle at you that could very well kill you so yes lethal force would be considered equal in lethality. Now I’m not a attorney but I would think that if someone is threatening you with a beer bottle that they can break off and make into a shank or throw one against your head that could cause a very serious brain bleed swelling and yes death.

      • Subdural hematoma is the actual term that can be caused from an impact from a beer bottle to your head very nasty.

  9. Speaking as someone who lives in a state where we actually have bears, I think we need to export a bunch of grizz (and a trailer full of wolves) to Central Park in the east, MacArthur & Golden Gate Parks in the west.

    This way, those who want to preserve the bears, wolves, etc can have a taste of their own cooking, so to speak.

    • I have a Peterbuilt conventional with a 53-foot animal transport trailer waiting to be loaded sir I will hand deliver I think I could probably fit around 15 brown bears and at least one pack of wolves and I suggest Central Park. LOL let them go and get there $12 freaking coffees and a pastry and have to share that with about a 900 pound brown bear or let them walk their little poodles as a pack of wolves comes around the corner we’ll see how their attitudes change LOL freakin hilarious man keep them coming.

      • Getting your rig into some of those spots I’ve mentioned might be a bit tight. A cab-over with minimal sleeper and 48′ van with solid sides would fit more easily and might attract less attention.

        When I first hatched this idea, I was thinking more in terms of a one-ton pickup with a 24′ horse trailer. When someone mentioned that some of the animals to be transported might have tracking collars on them, I reckoned to pull the collars off the critters, stop by the nearest Flying-J on the way to the coast, flip a collar here into someone’s rack or a collar there into some spare trailer tire ledge, then head for the cities with the critters.

        Take ’em in under cover of darkness after midnight, kick open the door at 0-dark-30, close up, then quietly leave town.

        By the time we’d stop for breakfast somewhere out in flyover country again, we could be watching the quality entertainment of breathless info-babes bringing us the news of “Apex predators, on the loose!!!” and “homeless people learn to climb trees!” on CNN or Fox.

        • “Take ’em in under cover of darkness after midnight, kick open the door at 0-dark-30, close up, then quietly leave town.”

          I hear very thick fog is a thing in San Fran, and a rental U-Haul blends in just about anywhere…

          *snicker*

    • If bears and gray wolves were introduced into Central Park, the term “wilding” would take on a whole new, much more literal meaning.

    • Introducing grizzly’s to state parks in CA is a go for me. It would cut down on the homeless and tweaker problems we have.

      “You! In the fur coat! Yes you, fat ass! Gimme a dollar!”

      It has possibilities.

  10. The trophy hunting bit reeks of distraction.

    What I see is a front to stop the federal government from losing power.

  11. I’m all for it. Seasons and lotteries can ensure that the population is not depleted. Bears typically have 2 cubs per litter, and their population will grow exponentially if you don’t kill a few of them each year.

    Some hunting is necessary to keep bears out of residential areas. Also, hunting licenses pay for habitat building efforts. In summary, IT’S A GOOD THING. We just have too many crybaby animal rights poo-sighs out there, and it’s dangerous when they make wildlife management decisions based on their feelings, rather than science.

  12. Long as the animal isn’t wasted (meat and other useful parts can always be donated someplace), I really don’t have a problem with it. It’s those rare few instances of people killing something just for the trophy and leaving rest of the carcass to rot that don’t really agree with (although it could be argued that leaving the body to rot would help the soil to stay fertile, allowing better plant growth and in turn, better animal growth.)

  13. People who have no idea what they’re talking about should STFU when it comes to public policy. Ignorant blather has a place: a bar. People eat bears so it’s not just a trophy hunt.

    No, personally I do the trophy hunt and other than a nice rug I wouldn’t. Too hard to clean the dust off those things.

  14. Just don’t kill the last one. We’ve already done enough of that.

    Full disclosure: I don’t have to deal with bears, so it’s an easy opinion to have.

  15. As long as waste is kept to a bare (bear) minimum, I’m ok with it. I’m purely a meat hunter myself, so a doe is as good as a buck to me, maybe better, as it usually tastes better.

    • I used to think that way too until I started dating a wildlife biologist. She told me that a buck *generally* only produces a few offspring while a doe *generally* produces 8 or more. So for that reason I’ve been sticking been sticking to bucks only.

  16. many years back, moose in Maine went berserk. apparently there is a parasite that affects the brain of members of the deer family. exceed a threshold, you got wacked out moose on the loose.

    nobody denied the need to thin the herd. some people objected to allowing sport hunters to do it. they expected Maine to hire trained professionals to thin the herd. They wanted people who did not enjoy killing moose to kill moose

    apparently these people believe there is a battalion of professional killers who own rifles capable of harvesting a moose, own woodland gear, have hunting and tracking and woodland skills, and are capable and willing to hunt for moose despite the fact that they don’t enjoy hunting moose, as long as they get paid for it.

    Imagine the kind of candidate that person would vote for

  17. I’m all about the harvest and hunt. I’m just not really into trophies or bruins,they take more food prep time and to be really frank , taste like sh*t. I’d much rather enjoy the sight of seeing them ,having them close ,letting their genes spread and taking a year old doe or basket eight to help the gene pool. What infuriates me is people who take five deer, a moose, and elk and then only utilize half of the meat throughout the year. If your donating”just to hunt” kill meat, hunt hogs, keep the good stuff around for your kids to see. Conservation is key.

  18. Had at least three cases of my security software kicking in on TTAG saying it was a security risk.
    Dec 23 going to the second page
    Dec 23 reading this article
    Dec 22 article about man not guilty for shooting swat
    I think it also happened on a recent Sara Tipton article
    This is the header that showed up for the second occurance today engine.spotscreened.info/link.engine?guide=a3645e25-e40…
    Couldn’t find a direct contact link for TTAG, didn’t there used to be one?

  19. so if its ok for us to trophy hunt animals, then by that logic we can not get pissy when aliens start to trophy hunt us. but all the ignorant self serving ass hats on here will cry a hypocritical river.

    • I imagine that most people following this site wouldn’t sit behind their computer crying any sort of river in an alien invasion. However, I’m 100% willing to help you police the site when aliens invade November 13th, 2022 to make sure. We’ll sure show all these gun loving, white supremacist, sexist, animal haters the truth when the proverbial shoe is on the alien foot!

    • When you wrote “aliens,” were you referring to space aliens or alien Muslim terrorists? AFAIK, the latter do not take trophies, but they do take heads.

    • Human are people.

      Aliens (presumably) are people.

      Lions, tigers, and bears….not so much. Bit of a hole in your “logic”, such as it is.

    • What do you mean “when aliens start to trophy hunt us”? Are you suggesting that Predator was not a documentary?

      • I sat in a deer blind at a million o’clock in the morning once. Decided that I’d feel like total sh*t if I were to pull the trigger on the deer I saw (probably WAY too far off for me to hit anyway) and became a non-hunter then and there… and I don’t have a problem with (other people) trophy hunting.

  20. What is the difference between a hunt and a trophy hunt? This guy was saying that people support the former but not the latter. Seeing as I am not a hunter I don’t know, but isn’t it illegal on federal land to kill an animal for its head and leave the rest to rot? If so, it seems to me that if someone wants the trophy but not the meat, an amicable agreement could be made where someone who does want it would benefit, just as occurs in Africa.

    Moreover, the real issue in this video was not hunting or trophy hunting, but the very real biological/genealogical concern that isolated populations over time express many more recessive traits, ultimately leading in many cases to the termination of that population group. And there may be solid science that a population of 500 bears is not sufficient–which wouldn’t surprise me, as it is very close to the established breaking point for a species survival. The idea of connecting the populations in some fashion to strengthen the gene pool is good, and having an adequate number of animals is good, and as far as I know, well supported by the sporting community. There is no sport when there are no animals to hunt. Which is why hunters are some of the leading conservationists in this country.

    • It’s illegal to shoot an animal and leave it to rot on state land as well as federal in CA. Unethical under most circumstances. There are exceptions. Vermin and pest animals. Furbearers I believe are also excepted.

      I eat what I kill or give the kill to people in my circle that will eat it. It’s not wasted.

      Trophy hunting would be unethical if the animal was left to rot. But if the carcass is disposed of in a legal manner and all the rules were followed I see no problem with it.

  21. I only trophy hunt for narwals. Their horns (teeth actually) make for nice table and chair legs. Elephant tusks are so last year

  22. You had an expert on Chimps and bugs pontificating about Bears. Then some ding dong brings in global warming. This video is ridiculous.

  23. My thoughts:
    1. I don’t hunt. I’ve tried it, but it just doesn’t appeal to me. But I have no objections to it.
    2. Whether it’s for food, protection or trophy doesn’t make a difference to me. It probably makes no difference to the animal being killed either.
    3. About 10 grizzlies are killed a year. Grizzlies kill about 10 humans a year. We’re even.
    4. About 29 people are killed by dogs every year. But we euthanize about 1.2 million dogs each year and abuse a lot more. Now THAT pisses me off.

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