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The Polar Bear Issue
A message from Sports Afield Publisher Ludo Wurfbain

Dear Readers:
We have refrained from indicating to our customers what we think of political situations one way or the other since we started Safari Press in 1984. I hope that it will be another 20-plus years before I am persuaded to write another political message like this.

Few among us have not heard of the U.S. government’s plan to place the polar bear on the Endangered Species Act (ESA) list. How absolutely ludicrous this is can be attested by the fact that current estimates of the polar bear population are about 20,000 to 25,000 (Wall Street Journal, 3 Jan 07) which means there are more polar bears than there are desert sheep, or Stone sheep.

I am not a scientist, so I will not comment on global warming beyond saying that it appears to me that our planet may be increasing in temperature. But the listing of the polar bear will accomplish nothing except to score some political points with anti-hunters and their ilk who will never be satisfied until we all live in caves and the mastodon and the saber-toothed tiger have returned to earth. The numbers of polar bears shot in Canada (the only place where there is any sport hunting) will remain the same whether there are sport hunters going there or not because the native quota for bears is set and the only way a sport hunter can shoot one is to acquire a permit from an Inuit. So even if the polar bear were listed on the ESA, the number of bears killed would remain the same.

Never mind the fact that the bear is not at all endangered, and that its population has risen from a low of 5,000 in 1950 to at least 20,000 today. If we let U.S. Fish and Wildlife list a species based on a perceived danger that might happen sometime in the future, they will pretty soon be listing most game animals that we hunters hold dear, that we helped protect, and that we spent millions to restore.

What can you do? I will freely admit my skepticism of some advocacy organizations in this world, but I personally vouch for Conservation Force as an effective organization working to stop bureaucrats in Washington from trying to tell us what is best. Please consider making a donation to this organization, which is headed up by John Jackson III. He has our support and our contribution is on its way.

Click to make your tax-deductible contribution to Conservation Force by credit card. Do it today!

Sincerely,

Ludo Wurfbain
Publisher, Sports Afield & Safari Press