In Downtown Oysterville, June 6, 2010

     It seems to me that when Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) removed the ten black bears from the area north of Oysterville, they left one important part of the job undone.   They should have removed the lunatics who had been feeding those bears for the last few years!  Five of the bears had to be euthanized.  “An eye for an eye” comes to mind…
     We never saw their “bear baiting” in person but we saw the poster in the window of the Oysterville Store that showed them hand-feeding the bears and enticing the public to come and watch.  The news said they were spending $4,000 a year on dog food for the purpose.
     We were so appalled at the stupidity of it that we called WDFW to see if something couldn’t be done.  According to newspaper reports, they rounded up the bears as soon as someone complained.  Hard to believe.  We made our first call last fall and were told that there was no law against hand-feeding.  I guess the fact that we were not reporting property damage made our call a non-complaint.
     I am saddened that, once again, my fellow-humans have knowingly upset the balance of nature and have caused such havoc among our black bear population.  And I am mortified that it happened “in Oysterville.”  One newspaper went so far as to say that the bears had been fed “by people from the town of Oysterville” which makes it sound like it was a village project.  I hasten to say that it was happening quite a way out of town which is neither here nor there in the great scheme of things.  I’m just sorry that it happened at all.
     And, what next?  Will someone be buying hay to feed the elk herd that hangs out near Leadbetter Point?  There really is no substitute for brains and I, for one, don’t think some people give evidence of possessing any gray matter at all.  What a travesty.