Let me preface by saying this.
I support hunting, I think when done in a sporting manner and the animal is eaten it is a perfectly respectable hobby.. hell I dont hunt but love eating venison.

BUT..
I was watching ESPN the other morning, and they were hunting mtn lions. They essentially chase these cats up a tree with dogs and a guide (maybe even on a ranch?), then stand back and shoot it with an arrow, where it falls out of the tree...

I have a real hard time considering that sporting... anyone else have thoughts? Kind of like herding a shark into a tide pool and shooting it from the safety of the rocks...

Trophy hunters....

Thought the same when I saw a recent show on hunting Black Bear. The camp or ranch owner fills a barrel with apples. A hunter sits in a stand about 20 yrds away and shoots the bear.

i used to sell catfish guts in 55 gallon drums to bear hunters out west.
pretty lame i guess, but hell, when you find someone willing to pay money for offal, it is hard to turn them away.

Actually baiting has it's place. One of the benefits are you have the ability to be very selective, meaning you can see if the sow you would have taken has cubs or not. Another is it's a lot safer for the hunter as appose to the spot and stalk method, not that this is a bad method but they both have there place. On another note I don't believe in using dogs, It doesn't seem to give the bear much of a sporting chance no mater how effective it is.

Just my thoughts

Sportsman :btu:

I have no problem with hunting.I also have no problem with baiting.Baiting just doesn't mean attracting your quarry with food,using calls is a form of baiting.I don't biggame hunt but do a fair amount of smallgame and use squirrel calls and the like..As long as what you kill is used,I'm cool with it.

To chase a mtn.lion up a tree and then to kill it for no other reason than the kill is lame.

I agree completely. I don't think there is a place for dogs in any kind of hunting with the exception of bird hunting were it is close to a necessity to be effective.

I think dogs and birding are on a completely different level...

What burns me are the game farms where the entire hunt is really a managed affair. Pay your money and get your kill :yak6:

There's also a good element of emotion involved. Wild game are pretty smart and unless the kill is to sustain your family there should be an element of fairness involved. I really don't see how baiting a bear for a turkey shoot is all that fair, considering the damn bear would have probably sacked your trash barrel had it the opportunity.

-spence

What burns me are the game farms where the entire hunt is really a managed affair. Pay your money and get your kill :yak6:

-spence

DITTO

Neither the lion hunt nor the "baited" bear hunt appeal to me, but like "sportsman" said it could prevent you from inadvertently killing a female with cubs, so that's a good thing. I don't know anything about the lion hunts, but I do know that it's very [very] difficult to kill a bear in "this" part of the country unless you hunting over bait or at a dump. Bear like very thick cover and the have extreme good hearing and sense of smell. I've spent a lot of time in the woods, only some of it in bear country and I've only gotten one quick glimps of black bear -[maybe]. I would pass on both of those hunts.

Neither the lion hunt nor the "baited" bear hunt appeal to me, but like "sportsman" said it could prevent you from inadvertently killing a female with cubs, so that's a good thing. I don't know anything about the lion hunts, but I do know that it's very [very] difficult to kill a bear in "this" part of the country unless you hunting over bait or at a dump. Bear like very thick cover and the have extreme good hearing and sense of smell. I've spent a lot of time in the woods, only some of it in bear country, and I've only gotten one quick glimps of black bear - [maybe]. I would pass on both of those hunts.