Bowsite.com

I am proposing that every Bowsite member donate $1 (or more) to defeat this referendum.

The link will take you to a page where you can donate via credit card or Pay Pal.

Please make a contribution, and please ask every hunter and outdoorsmen that you know to help out.

Maine has over 30,000 bears, and that number has grown by 67% since 1990. They are doing things right from a management perspective and the small businesses that depend on revenue from Hunters are at risk.

As you well know, the Animal Rights people are well financed and well organized. Let's show them that hunters stand up for what they believe in.

Even if you don't hunt bears, or don't like hunting over bait or with dogs, I think almost everyone will agree that we should leave Wildlife Management decisions to the professionals and those most informed.

Feel free to comment on this topic and add links and info. I will not allow this to develop into a debate on whether or not bear hunting over bait is ethical. If you want to have that argument, start your own thread.

And much more than $1

I watched as a kid when we lost hound hunting, spring hunting and baiting, and all trapping. As a high school student I saw the end result before it even started. Every week bears are shot by the government here because they are in the trash, in the house, etc.

Atleast when we had hound hunting a dog bark would make a bear turn and run away. Today they hear a dog bark and go looking for food.

Good luck I hope it does not pass. I will share link on other websites.

At this point the effort has to be directed towards Maine voters because when you put an item like this on a ballot, there is no way to know what direction it will go.

You have a ton of partially informed, and totally uninformed voters making the decisions that should be left up to the Professionals.

To the guys that are on the fence on this. Would a few dollars be that hard.

Ed

The HSUS will not stop until their goal of NO HUNTING ANYWHERE is accomplished. We have to stick together on this one or don't complain when it comes to your state and no one moves one finger to help you.

Step up to the plate now.

Easy PayPal or CC link -thx for the heads up

Always a good idea to reassure yourself about this stuff. The organization that formed up to spearhead this effort is savemainesbearhunt.com

To gauge their credibility take a look at their endorsements. Sportsmans Alliance of Maine, Maine Professional Guides Association and North Maine Woods are among the largest Maine organizations throwing their support to them. Endorsment link: http://savemainesbearhunt.com/endorsements/ but there's a heap of other heavy hitters on the list also.

My guess is that similar to the last referendum on this subject, most of the money will be spent on TV ads to combat the massive media blitz that the Anti's pulled last time.

Thanks Ace for getting this issue some attention here.

Once again, it's the few carrying the weight for the many.

Are we so self absorbed that we can't see what is happening to us?

We are being systematically divided and conquered. Look around people. States like Colorado and Washington and (cough) California have already lost a lot of Hunting and Trapping Opportunities.

Something as ridiculously obvious as Sunday Hunting is too tough of an issue to get passed in some places.

A NATIONAL ANTI HUNTING, ANTI PET, ANTI ZOO, ANTI ANIMAL RESEARCH, ANIMAL RIGHTS ORGANIZATION tries to impose its will on Traditional Hunting Methods in a rural state like Maine, and we as hunters, blood brothers, barely register it as a blip!

The 3 methods of Bear Hunting that this referendum would outlaw are responsible for 93% of the Bears taken in Maine. It doesn't matter if you like baiting, or hound hunting, or trapping, these methods are Scientifically supported and the Maine bear population is growing even with these things legal.

Sometimes I think that Liberals, and ARAs are just so miserable that they are trying to bring others down to their level. They think that since the feel things so strongly they have to be right.

The best way to deal with this is to donate a few bucks, defeat this overwhelmingly, and make the city based crazies say "wow, I had no idea they would feel this strongly about hunting, I guess we underestimated them".

Instead our apathy plays right into their hands.

Come On guys, Kick them where it hurts!

I just hope that folks in Maine take this seriously and show up to vote. In my experience there is a lot of the "they will never take hunting away from us" attitude.

Turnout is going to be the determining factor here.

Contribute if you can guys, and let's get the word out!

These anti-hunters will be coming soon to a state near you, if they aren't already there.

And that's the truly sucky part, having to continually be on this issue.

Ace, I already (gently) put the bite on the person that turned me on to BOWSITE a couple years back.LOL!

Shoot me a PM and I'll give you my info to enter. I'm proud to be associated with donating to this cause. I have contributed already and will continue to do so. If you want to contribute and use my info instead of yours, I prefer that over you not contributing. I'm not an expert on this online contribution stuff, but as long as you donating on my behalf doesn't break any laws then do it. If that's not legal/appropriate you can PM me and we can do it differently. Regardless, everyone here should be contributing however possible. ..no excuses not to.

You are registered here on Bowsite, I assume that's your real name and state. Did you ever try googling yourself, pretty amazing the info that comes up.

Nobody can tell you what to do, but as Hunters if we don't help each other out, who will?

Not to worry though, I'll send them $5 more, since you're unwilling to.

I'm curious, why did you feel the need to post here that you don't want to enter your name, phone number and address? Why didn't you just not post at all? Is that out of some sort of guilt for not contributing? I find that a bit odd.

Funny that we were just talking about this, he just came home from a moose hunt up there and he said the people up there are really worried about this.

I just don't see how they can loose that kind of revenue...

Nanuke, the problem is that a lot of people have moved to Maine fairly recently who feel differently than we do. This is why managing wildlife by public referendum is a bad idea. People moving from places like Boston to Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine, have shifted the voting significantly to the left.

Many Liberals left Mass because of high taxes, bad gun laws and an anti business attitude. They went to places with a very different quality of life, unfortunately they kept voting for people who brought liberal policies to formerly conservative states. Taxes went up, gun laws get worse and now hunting is in their crosshairs.

Thanks to everyone who is helping out with contributions and by spreading the word.

AND, fund raising support has been strong. Almost 100% of the funds being spent to push the ban come from out of Maine, and more than half of the funds donated to defeat the ban are coming from within Maine.

Great job everyone, on the contributions and on raising awareness.

Tuesday November 4th is Election Day. Be sure to vote, and keep in mind who supports your rights!

The ballot measure to eliminate Bear Hunting in Maine (by the most popular methods) has gone done in Defeat!

Thanks to all who helped. THIS is what hunters and sportsmen can do if we support each other.

From story at the link: "The ban went down to defeat by a margin of 52.3 to 47.7 percent." and: "The ban came to be seen as a fight between hunters and anti-hunters rather than just a referendum on specific hunting practices. While 97 percent of the funds from the anti-hunters came from out of state, mostly through the HSUS, 39 percent of the money used in the campaign to defeat the initiative was raised within the state."

The Animal Rights folks will be back. And we have to fight them everywhere. Nice job all. Congrats to the hunters in Maine.