Update: This bill failed to pass.
Bill Description: If passed, this legislation would open a hunting season on black bears in Oklahoma.
[teaserbreak]
Bears are hunted using packs of dogs, which many deem as unfair, unsporting and cruel. Moreover, the rare occurrences of bear/human conflicts in Oklahoma will not be resolved by a hunting season as a general hunting season will not lead to the elimination of the offending bears. Instead, the situation could be easily resolved if folks simply put away the bears’ source of food: garbage. Finally, black bears have one of the lowest reproduction rates of any mammal. According to Oklahoma Wildlife Conservation’s own website, “… black bear populations have declined or have been eliminated in areas where land use changes have converted forest habitat to agricultural or urban developments. As human encroachment fragments forests, bear populations become patchy in their distribution. Because they’re sensitive to habitat loss, the black bear is often used by resource agencies as an indicator species to evaluate and monitor habitat quality and quantity.” Bears were over-hunted and disappeared from Oklahoma nearly 100 years ago. Don’t let the population that exists in Oklahoma now — only because they were reintroduced — suffer the same fate.