8/17/11 PEARS AND BEARS

RIPENING PEARS

WHAT IS IT ILLEGAL FOR THE BEAR TO DO?

BEAR TRAP ON TRAILER

BUSINESS END OF THE BEAR TRAP

Wednesday, 8:00 AM. 66  degrees, wind WSW, light.  The sky is clear, we got an eigth of an inch of rain last night, and the barometer predicts more rain, but I doubt before evening. It is a gorgeous day. Pears are beginning to ripen on neighbors’ trees, another sign of an aging summer.
    The DNR bear catch contractor arrived yesterday morning and left a barrel trap in the Coast Guard neighbor’s front yard, right next to our front yard.  It is by their garage and right in the usual path the bear takes through our yard and past our bedroom patio door.  It is baited with all sorts of cookies, chocolate cake, etc. all the sweet stuff bears love.  It is basically an eight foot length of culvert on skids, with a trap door on one end and bars on the other. I hope it doesn’t catch neighborhood dogs or skunks etc.  It will be left for about a week, and hopefully Mr. B will end up in it and be transported far enough that he won’t come back.  Monday night a terrific confrontation was reported between bear and dogs twenty feet from our bedroom window that we somehow slept through.  All was quiet last night. This morning the trap is still empty.
    I have a trail camera set up to photograph the bear as he enters the trap.  I am not good with digital technical stuff but I think I have it set up O.K.  We will see. In any case I can probably take a photo of the bear in the trap with my camera if he is caught.  All kind of fun as long as the bear cooperates. 
    The illogic inherent in the situation relates to the fact that if a human intruder threatens one’s family and property one can legally use deadly force, but if it is a dangerous animal one cannot, and one may well end up in jail and with a stiff fine if one does.  It begs the question of whose rights the government is protecting here; those of the taxpaying citizen, or the wild animal?  Unfortnately our modern society with its esxtreme environmental agenda will take the taxpayer’s money and use it to promote the welfare of animals over the welfare of humans.  Is the bear’s life more valuable than that of a child?  This is the corner we have been backed into by environmental extremists with hidden, anti-human agendas.