- HSUS fails again in bid to stop hunting in California

The California Fish and Game Commission, which sets hunting laws, rejected a request from the Humane Society of the United States to halt the upcoming fall hunting season in a 3-0 decision on Thursday, April 20. California's bear numbers may have been affected by recent wildfires, according to the animal protection organization, and the state should suspend bear hunting until a more thorough census of bears is conducted.

The commissioners agreed with state biologists who claim that the bear population has exploded in recent decades and that bears are now occupying areas where they have never been before in modern history. The biologists presented the commissioners with evidence that indicated "conclusively that California's bear population is not on the decline, and current estimates may even be underestimating the population," according to the biologists. According to previous estimates, California's bear population ranged from 30,000 to 40,000.

It's the Humane Society's second attempt in less than two years to outlaw bear hunting in California, whose state flag displays a now-extinct bear known as the California grizzly. Last March, the group backed a bill sponsored by State Senator Scott Wiener that would have made bear hunting illegal forever. Wiener's office cited polls at the time that showed bear hunting was unpopular in California.

Nonetheless, after receiving a barrage of calls and emails from state and national hunting organizations mobilizing their members to fight the ban, the San Francisco Democrat promptly dropped the bill. Hunters assert that, contrary to animal rights groups' allegations that bear hunting is a brutal bloodsport for trophies, they eat the pork-like meat from bears killed with rifles and bows. It is illegal to waste bear meat, and hunters who kill female bears with cubs can be prosecuted. Furthermore, hunters argue that the fees they pay to kill a few hundred bears each year represent a valuable source of wildlife-agency revenue that benefits all species, including the vast majority of bears who survive a given hunting season.

Last year, bear hunting permits brought in roughly $1.5 million for the state's wildlife agency. The funds will be used to support habitat preservation through a big game management fund. Last year, 31,450 hunters purchased bear hunting permits. During the fall season, they claimed to have killed only 1,186 of them.

NAWA holds a strong belief that regulated hunting is a powerful and positive conservation tool.