At about the same time the U.S. media was revealing that Kristi Noem, the governor of Montana who reportedly aspires to be the running mate of former president Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee for the presidency had shot her own 14 month old dog, I received disturbing news from closer to home. Bear With Us, the bear rehabilitation center near Sprucedale, Ontario, reported that the Thunder Bay office of the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry (MNRF) had been notified about a bear missing a foot. Through a beautifully coordinated effort from several district offices, the MNRF captured the poor animal, and took him, an adult male, to Bear With Us.
The bear was missing part of his rear left foot. Mike McIntosh, founder of the center and assuredly one of my favorite people for being so great a friend to bears, thinks the bear’s mutilated foot had been caught in a trap, losing part of it in escaping. But that is not the entire story of what was done to this bear. On May 3rd, a National Wildlife Center veterinarian determined through x-rays that the bear had been shot by an arrow, presumably last fall. The arrow appears to have penetrated to the hip bone and would have caused intense pain. And that explains why this tragic animal had lost most of his muscle mass, was dangerously emaciated, and weighed only 38 kg, just over 100 pounds, or about a third of what a healthy adult male bear would weigh.
From the trajectory the arrow appears to have been fired from above, presumably from a tree stand as the bear was attracted to a bait spread below. But because of the subsequent pain, the poor bear would have been unable to properly hibernate, thus slow his metabolism and allow him to be in good health and condition the following spring. All this suffering so a hunter can have whatever “fun” derives from killing animals.
Cricket was the name of Kristi Noem’s pup, obtained as a “bird dog” to help Noem “enjoy” the pleasure of killing pheasants, but shot in the head by Noem because Cricket was “hard to train” and had killed a chicken! Noem admitted to shooting a pet goat in the same gravel pit as the pup, whom Noem said she “hated”. And how many chickens do we kill – not you or I personally, of course – but “us” as a species? (The answer is about 202 million – per day – and most live miserable lives until dead.)
We are capable of what behaviourists call interspecies altruism, great kindness toward other species, and for that matter our own, but also horrific violence to others, and the kind of illogical reasoning that leads a politician to hating a rambunctious pup for doing what so many of us do, what she, herself does. One thing is certain: there is always, always, always, a rationale that makes sense to someone, to kill someone else of whatever species.
The bear has been named Thor. He is anemic, presumably from blood loss and chronic injury leading to starvation. But Mike says he is strengthening. I hope he makes it; I hope kindness has this victory over the violence so horribly characteristic of our kind and that Thor can benefit from the kindness we can also exercise toward other fellow beings, including those with four feet and fur.
We Need Your Help to Oppose Sport Hunting:
From our very beginning, more than three decades ago, Animal Alliance of Canada has opposed sport hunting and fishing. We challenge governmental subsidies provided to forms of tourism that involve killing wild animals; and the social acceptance of killing wild animals as a form of entertainment.
Stand with wild animals by supporting the work of Animal Alliance of Canada. With your financial support, we can do so much more.
Donate: https://www.animalalliance.ca/donate/
We recognize and deeply appreciate the work of all those sanctuaries that provide good quality rehabilitation to wild animals, sanctuaries like: Bear With Us Centre for Bears – Rehabilitation, Education, Sanctuary.
Leave a Reply