http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/save-bears-in-korea.html
Clicked on this ad at the top of our A4A homepage which campaigns against the "farming" of bears for their gall bladders to be used in medicine - and rightly so. But as I clicked thru various pages I was horrified to see down the right-hand side of one page various links/ad including one for bear hunting in North America and another selling real bearskins (brown/black etc) at prices up to $1000. Surely completely hypocritical?
They hunt Elks too!
Always thought of you as our very own "endangered species" to be cherished, Tim................
I can clarify this a bit.
Bear is one of the animals hunted for food along with deer, moose,and wild boar in North America there are restrictions on numbers and seasons and in the case of some animals you have to draw to get a ticket as they only issue a few., All it takes is a hunting license.
A lot of my family hunted when I lived there so am quite familiar with it. I DID NOT hunt by the way and I did eat some hunted meat at first but never fancied it much and quickly went off the idea.I felt it was getting to be a yuppie sport ,more for the trophy than the food. My son in law and my son hunted but purely for food and with shot guns not traps.
The food hunters on the whole are a caring lot and abhore the killing of animals for little bits. The whole animal should be used. The skin is part of the animal and is sold. I think in this respect they are on the same level as any beef producer who kills the cattle and sells the hide, hoofs etc.
Bear is a different meat to venison or moose, I have never eaten it. and would not because I am very fond of bears . Many people don't because it carries a worm which can remain in undercooked meat.
Anyway that is the reason why hunters are against the killing of bears for their gall bladder.
XX Jeannine
That was very interesting info to read Jeannine, thanks for illustrating x
Sorry, haven't been on boards for a few days. Of course you are right Jeannine, to show the other side of the story. Guess I was just taken aback at seeing the bear rugs advertised - culture difference showing here as there aren't many grizzlies in Edinburgh except the human kind ;)