19 Charged for Bear Baiting in Blount Co.

[Garufa]

Now, I don't hunt and don't care that people do, but doesn't "hunt" mean go out and find?

http://www.knoxnews.com/news/local/twra-releases-names-of-hunters-charged-with-illegal-bear-baiting-in-blount-395317671.html?d=mobile

[peejman]

I didn't realize bear season was open already, I work with a couple avid bear hunters.  Personally, I don't consider hunting with dogs to be "hunting". More akin to shooting fish in a barrel. 

[jpx2rk]

Easier to "find" when you know where they gonna be.  

[Hershmeister]

"Authorities said the sites had been baited with “candy and bread making the hunt unethical by discouraging fair chase.”

Hell - small children would be drawn to this! Lol

[Ugly]

Concur with the baiting and dogs, it's not hunting. 

I wonder if this large group of folks have always done this, or are they trying to get their license fees worth, it is getting expensive after all. 

[Wingshooter]

I don't have a problem with baiting from an ethical standpoint. I think it's smart if you were really needing the food and trying to maximize your effort. I mean who wouldn't hunt near an apple tree? Ethically speaking, does the deer know if the apples fell from a tree or were placed on the ground by a hunter? However, baiting is illegal, and I have no tollerance for hunters that break the rules. Book 'em

Edited September 30, 2016 by Wingshooter

[Omega]

^^^ I concur, there are some rules that I don't agree with but they are the rules so if you, specially blatantly,  break them then they deserve what they get.  But...yes, a big but.  Due to my encounter with the TWRA I am dubious of the veracity of some of these charges when I read about them.  Not any particular story per se, but my faith in these guys (TWRA) being on the up and up has been severely shaken.

[Sunfish]

The TWRA has to draw the line somewhere but like Omega I've been observing them and it's clear what their about. Pay your fees and see how far you can stay from them.

[chances R]

Less hunters overall, and more of the folks that go into wildlife management are  more 'tree-huggers' and somewhat anti-hunting than the folks with country, hunting backgrounds.  In fact, some that go into the field consider the wildlife as almost a personal property and try to minimize its harvest.

[peejman]

Story I've heard is these guys were hunting on another's property without permission. It's been going on for years. When the property owner would fuss, his property would mysteriously catch fire.  He got fed up and called TWRA to set them up.

[Grunt67]

Some states allow bear baiting, not so in TN. Everyone involved knows that. Risk & reward, I guess. I don't consider baiting "hunting", myself.

Baiting is illegal for deer also, but using a scent attractant is. Don't see a difference. Strange laws this TWRA has at times.................

[Wingshooter]

On 9/30/2016 at 9:31 AM, peejman said:

Story I've heard is these guys were hunting on another's property without permission. It's been going on for years. When the property owner would fuss, his property would mysteriously catch fire.  He got fed up and called TWRA to set them up.

If that's the case then I'd say they got off easy.

 

[300winmag]

You can bait bears and deer in a lot of places to hunt them.  I have hunted deer over corn feeders out of state.  Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't just like hunting deer with dogs out of state.

[Hozzie]

If you need bait or dogs to hunt, you aren't a hunter.  I believe in fair chase.  

I don't hunt much anymore simply because I don't like most of the meat and I don't believe in killing most things that I don't have a purpose for.  There are a few exceptions I suppose, but for the most part, as I get older, I think more about why I am doing it.  

 

Hunting is necessary and I have no problem with it so long as it is done ethically.  It seems too many now days are simply about the kill and not the purpose.  

[Omega]

Personally, as long as it's legal, I don't care how others hunt. When I started hunting, we tracked and stalked our deer and didn't even think about tree stands or blinds, now I hunt like they do here. I have my own ethics but won't push them on others so the baiting part doesn't bother me, heck I planted food plots and use mineral blocks to get them to slow down at my place.   But again, if they blatantly broke the rules then so be it, slam them.