The Associated Press
October 9, 2004

Mass mailing paints bear hunters as addicts, psychos

By DAVID DISHNEAU, Associated Press Writer

Maryland sportsmen are incensed over a mass mailing of postcards to Garrett County landowners falsely suggesting that 40 percent of hunters with bear permits are alcoholics, drug addicts or mentally unstable.

The postcards were mailed last month by The Institute for Public Safety, a Montgomery County citizens group, urging bear-country residents to be wary during the hunting season that opens Oct. 25.

Institute Chairman Earle D. Hightower, of Rockville, said Thursday the group made up the statistic.

"We were just working from general population figures," he said. "If you get 200 people, a certain number are going to be somewhat undesirable."

Maryland Sportsmen's Association President Steven Christian called the mailing "a cheap shot" designed to inflame anti-hunting sentiment as litigation looms. A hearing is set for Oct. 18 in Prince George's County Circuit Court on a challenge by animal-protection groups to Maryland's first black bear hunt in 51 years.

The mailing "was in poor taste and totally without provocation," Christian said. He said the vast majority of hunters behave safely and ethically.

It is illegal to hunt while intoxicated in Maryland, said Cpl. Ken Turner of the Natural Resources Police.

Hightower said he has contributed money to The Fund for Animals, one of the groups suing to stop the bear hunt, but he said the Fund was not involved in the mailing.

Michael Markarian, president of The Fund for Animals, said he had never heard of Hightower or his group.

The Humane Society of the United States, another plaintiff in the lawsuit, also disavowed any knowledge of Hightower or his organization.

The postcards warn: "Obviously, someone who enjoys inflicting pain and death on helpless animals has a psychiatric problem and sometimes this develops into a compulsion to shoot at anything that moves, including people."

Hightower, a real-estate agent, said his group mailed 600 of the postcards to Garrett County landowners. He said they planned to mail more cards to landowners in western Allegany County, which comprises the rest of the hunt zone.

The state randomly selected 200 hunters from nearly 2,400 applicants for the hunt, scheduled for Oct. 25-30. It will end when hunters have killed 30 bears out of an estimated statewide population of 500. If fewer than 30 are killed, a second hunt will be held Dec. 6-11.

Each permit holder is entitled to hunt with a second person and, if they hunt on private property, with the landowner. Seventy percent of the permits are designated for use on private land.

The permits will be distributed at pre-hunt certification meetings Oct. 23-24 where hunters will learn about bear-hunting rules and ethics, according to the Department of Natural Resources.

© 2004 Associated Press