Tuesday, September 23, 2014

WI man with rifle, bait, defeats big bear

A Waupaca County man is celebrating - - TV in Green Bay and Milwaukee have carried the story - - after killing a 780-pound black bear, known locally as "Sampson."
“I’m like who is this? This is Jeremy. I’m like I got him, I got him, I don’t even know which friend I dialed first. I told him get the crew together, I got Sampson,” said [the hunter]... 
"It was totally an experience for everyone. It was amazing..." 
Well, probably not for everyone, if you were able to ask the bear attracted into the hunter's sights by bait. All perfectly legal, putting out bait.
...he’s just glad his crew helped him bag the bear of a lifetime.
So says the TV.

And we're talking about the hunter's lifetime, not the bear's, no?


Back to the celebration, per the TV.

Even the DNR warden was awestruck:

“Some of the bears in the Waupaca area that I’m familiar with have been in that 4-500 pound range, and I hear about one a year. But this is just an incredible animal,” said Ted Dremel, DNR Conservation Warden.
"Is incredible", or was? 

I still recommend William Faulkner's short novel, The Bear, about these sort of things - - people, wildlife, the land who owns, so to speak, what's on it. 


Faulkner's totemic bear was "Old Ben."

And yes, I know, I know. I'm describing a book. A work of fiction. Though life can more than imitate art.

Furthermore, here's a bit of the less-reported non-fiction part of the bear-hunting story in Wisconsin:


A lot of hunting dogs get torn apart by wolves every year after being attracted to that bear bait, or which attack hunting dogs running menacingly through wolf territory when bear hunters let their dogs loose during training runs.


Sixteen so far this year.

And every one of the hounders can apply to the state for a publicly-paid $2,500  reimbursement. Per dog. No lifetime limit. More than $500,000 paid out over the years.


Hunters who let their hounds run through known bear-baiting and wolf-activity areas - - even scofflaws who break state hunting rules - - are fully eligible.

On, Wisconsin, the land of disposable dogs, cruel hound training practices and wolf hunting quotas broken three straight years.

2 comments:

Betsey said...

Faulkner's "The Bear" is one of his best anythings, in my book--the short story that made me fall in love with Faulkner. Time to re-read it soon.

Betsey said...

Wisconsin, also land of the disposable conservation ethic.