Booth kills baited bear

[RoyalDude]

It's 'Hunting for Dummies'. Setting a bait and sitting in a tree like the clown that he is. Real difficult and exciting.

[Per]

It's not endangered, and in parts of North America black bears pose a problem when they become too many and some are pushed to live to close too humans. Hunting is not my cup of tea, but a lot of people truly enjoy it, and some culling needs to get done.

That being said, both baiting and hunting with bow and arrow are illegal practices in Sweden, so here he would probably have to do jail time. Baiting because there's a risk the animals start to realise they can get food from humans and start hanging around garbage cans or your back yard instead of feeding the way they should in the forest, bow and arrow because there is an increased risk the animal doesn't get a nice clean kill. Before you get a hunting license here you need to do a lot of practicing at a shooting range. The idea is to kill the animal with the first shot, which it actually seems Booth did. That part was good. He waited until he had a clean good angle, and it looks like he nailed it. Still. Not my cup of tea.

[SKYO]

I think this shows a tremendous amount of character on Booths part. He wasn't even a part of the team that lost to the Bruins in the finals yet he takes it upon himself to get revenge on the bear community.

If a King of some country gets murdered this summer you'll know who was behind it.,

we must be smokin' the same strain cause i was thinking the same thing...

lol, no show Booth should do a preemptive strike and assassinate both prince Charles & William.

[ukcanuck]

Just a pee brained ugly reactionary species swimming in the ocean.

Don't be so hard on yourself dude, you probably aren't that ugly... at least that's what your mother says...

[tantalum]

Oh who cares. He didn't do anything illegal, he enjoys hunting and this is often the method of choice when it comes to bear hunting.

So now that people accept that you have people whining that he made a video/TV show about it. SO what? For goodness sakes the national network that the NHL is on in the States has bow hunting shows every single day. Why wouldn't he document his hunt with video? Geez.

[Vpete]

I have no real issue with it. I don't like the bait idea entirely but I understand why it's used. But why is Booth taking the heat? He hired a guide and service who did it. Booth didn't just go out and throw a steak in a barrel and film it himself.

He also used a bow- yes they've come a long way but many guys use a gun doing the exact same process. In fact in Manitoba there are still trappers and trap lines but no one takes notice of them. This is all on Booth because it was filmed for a show and he is a hockey player and proud hunter. Which one of those three things matters most in outcry? Hockey Player.

I don't even care if he doesn't eat the bear and it sits in his living room as a rug. Better than small children working in carpet factories in Afghanistan making floor coverings that he would pay just as much for as he did the guides.

If baiting bears is so wrong what about cattle, milk production where cows are given hormones and live with swollen udder and bloated teats [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzcISH4h200[/youtube]

Is that any more humane to treat an animal than waiting to shoot it by attracting it to you? Sure one can argue that a hunter should hunt and that food production techniques are justified by the end results and that 'nothing is killed'. I don't buy it. But for all the folks out there who want wings on Saturday night during the game are you prepared to slaughter 15 chickens to get them?

Gluttony is just as much of a sin as killing a bear by baiting it when you consider 15 birds had to live in shit conditions in their own faeces and filth to make sure we can gorge ourselves.

I just think too many people are trying to pin a crime on the hunter like he sat out waiting for a human. Too bad we can't apply that kind of standard to the way we treat all animals.

[Mondi]

Regardless of what one thinks of hunting, I don't like Booth's attitude about it.

Throwing around the term "rights". If hunting in that jurisdiction requires a license (which I haven't bothered to look in to), then hunting is in fact a privilege. There is no law on the books that says, "Everyone has the right to go into the woods, bait a wild animal and slaughter it from a safe position." It likely says something like, "No person shall hunt black bears unless they have a valid licence." A privilege implies much less than a right. A privilege is granted by the state, a right is something that can never be taken away.

Now, if one has a licence then sure go out in the bush and exercise that privilege of slaughtering helpless animals, go right ahead. But, to me, hunting seems like wanton and unnecessary violence. To others it's some sort of primeval sport. I'm not doing it, nor will I do it. But if I did, I'd recognize that hunting is a privilege and something that requires deep respect for the animal and nature (in my opinion).

As for the analogy of people eating meat and wearing leather? It breaks down immediately unless Booth caught this animal for subsistence purposes.

One thing is for sure however, at 4+ million per season, Booth did not NEED to kill this bear.

This kid is a blockhead and his actions on the ice and off the ice do nothing to dispel the notion. You're in the public eye David, keep your private life private and you'd have no problems.

[Tciso]

One thing is for sure however, at 4+ million per season, Booth did not NEED to kill this bear.

Killing a bear, getting a monkey off your back. It's all the same.

[okcanuck]

On a lighter note,I once played a video game in the nineties,when hunting video games were popular, only this particular game was reversed. The player was a deer tracking humans,it was hilarious. I spent the game looking for clues such as beer cans,penthouse magazines, cigar butts and such.Too funny.

[Eddy Punch Clock]

On a lighter note,I once played a video game in the nineties,when hunting video games were popular, only this particular game was reversed. The player was a deer tracking humans,it was hilarious. I spent the game looking for clues such as beer cans,penthouse magazines, cigar butts and such.Too funny.

That deer damn well better have intended on eating the humans he killed.

[Topper]

mondi's rant

Would it change your opinion if the bear was called Otis Goldberg? (BTW, all black bears are called Otis)

Booth had a license. As a non resident hunter he was on a guided hunt. The hunt was filmed for a new TV show on a hunting and fishing cable channel.

How is this different than Willie Mitchell heading back home in the summer, throwing some bait on his hook and a line in the water to go after a salmon?

[Corb]

mondi's rant

How is this different than Willie Mitchell heading back home in the summer, throwing some bait on his hook and a line in the water to go after a salmon?

Exactly, there is no difference.

[Cornuck]

How is this different than Willie Mitchell heading back home in the summer, throwing some bait on his hook
and a line in the water to go after a salmon?

WTF!? Mitchell killed a salmon?

[Mondi]

mondi's rant

Would it change your opinion if the bear was called Otis Goldberg? (BTW, all black bears are called Otis)

Booth had a license. As a non resident hunter he was on a guided hunt. The hunt was filmed for a new TV show on a hunting and fishing cable channel.

How is this different than Willie Mitchell heading back home in the summer, throwing some bait on his hook and a line in the water to go after a salmon?

It's no different. I'm fine with it insofar as it was lawful.

But I can still disagree with hunting/fishing for sport as a hobby.

And even with license, it does not make hunting your right. Hunting, like driving, is a privilege granted by the state.

[Per]

If baiting bears is so wrong what about cattle, milk production where cows are given hormones and live with swollen udder and bloated teats [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzcISH4h200[/youtube]

No, and the use of hormones on livestock is banned throughout the EU. That is also why there is restrictions on the import of North American meat to Europe. If hormones are illegal here, it wouldn't make sense to allow the import of hormone treated meat either.