Twelve bears killed on suspicion of futurecrime
 

- after this it's pretty much all just ranting from various groups, and I don't need them stealing my thunder.

It's not that irregular of a thing to happen, but it's troubling me at the moment. I mean, they bring their fat little kids out to hassle the bears, and suddenly when it becomes inconvenient, we just shoot them all. It's fucking preposterous. And I mean, it's not like this is a big city where you can fall back on "well, there was no way to control the population." It's 166 gorram people! And this is solution number 1, not "we thought about how to handle this, and decided a culling was the only way."

But you know, I'm not trying to take the "killing is always wrong" angle here. What's really troubling me is how driven by fear this is. They sound like Steven Colbert! This isn't even on par with culling coyotes, because you know 100% for sure that every single one of them wants nothing more than to eat your livestock. This is killing them because the possibility is present that a bear might maul someone. And are we seriously saying that we couldn't relocate them, or invest in some security, or something? Come on.

Yeah, I get it: Bears that are familiar with humans can become dangerous. Of course, both the familiarity and danger are the direct result of people being idiots and having zero respect for the animals, and then most likely continuing to do so after the danger is present.

And one or two security guards could have made all of this completely unnecessary. Or, y'know, a better fence.

This whole thing is just completely immoral, and I actually went into this meaning to be a bit more speculative about that, but I seem to have worked myself up a bit.

bears are not your friend, they are vicious wild animals that will eat the fuck out of you.

I really don't have much else to add, that seems like a pretty self evident, stand alone statement.

Also, money. Nobody wants to spend the $12.50 an hour that a security guard would cost when they could just front the cost of some rifle rounds and not have to worry about little Jimmy getting snatched up like a honey baked ham.

Acknowledged. Lack of respect for bears is pretty much the whole point to what I was saying.

Most landfills can at least manage an effective fence, if not an actual security staff.

Edit: But I really wasn't posting about the logistics of it. I was posting about the morality of it.

I don't think security guards would be a good idea. I mean, who's going to want to be on guard in front of a bunch of black bears that people tell you that you have to be in guard in front of because they don't fear humans and are probably going to eat someone?

It's like paying someone $12.50 to go stand in the tiger cage with steaks tied to their face.

That said, they really probably should have just built some better fencing and started fining people for harassing/feeding the bears. Someone gets mauled at that point, it's their own stupid fault--and, honestly, they should do that anyway at this point, even after the culling, because otherwise they're going to have the same problem again in a few years.

I'm guessing the time/cost/potential risk involved with increasing landfill security was greater than just killing them. As I said, it's most likely budget motivated.

And so long as they're not endangered there really isn't much point in putting money into conservation

When I mentioned security, I meant having it before all of this happened, to make the people fuck off. Not to fight bears, although if you can find a guard badass enough to do it....

I recognize this, although adequate fencing doesn't really cost that much, and they're building one that will stay up now.

Frankly, a part of me would have liked for little Timmy to have gotten mauled first just so the stupid fucks would realize these aren't stuffed toys they're dealing with and maybe to leave them alone instead of making it a day trip, but I can't disagree ultimately with the culling, because with the new fencing, these bears would then have gone into town in search of food. The entire thing should never have happened because, as said, a fence isn't exactly made out of platinum and rubies, but it could have been much worse.

I'm with Bitvyper which may sort of undermine his argument :/

But I mean, yeah ok Bears aren't endangered and they are maybe sort of dangerous now but it's also not their fault that people who KNEW BETTER WERE FEEDING THEM.

I think Funka's general attitude is a summary of everything I hate about human attitude towards animals and environment in general.

Edit: Or possibly everything I hate about human attitude towards the world.

it's not my attitude, it's my estimation of the actual motivations behind these actions.

I'm pretty sure I'm right too.

Doesn't make me happy of course, just being realistic.