Question about Law Re: Approach Distance to Grizzly Bears

[Rotte]

There will always be silly people that do silly things. It's not your job to protect the world from them. Just my $.02.

Nice find with the regulations V8.

Evolute has a point though, habituating bears to the presence of people will lead to a problem, the solution of which will be dead bears. And no, it's may not be Evolute's job to protect the world from silly people (of course for all I know it is his job), but it may be the job of all of us. Perhaps we could all advocate for sensible behavior, subjective as that may be.

There was recently a case in California where a crowd watched a girl get gang raped. Anyone in the crowd could have said, "it's not my job to protect the world from criminals" and they'd have been right. Doesn't lessen the tragedy or our sense of shock that a crowd stood by while someone was brutalized. Obviously, this is a different situation, but the underlying principle is the same: each of us has a choice to make the world a better place or sit on our hands. I am grateful that the passengers of United flight 93 decided they would do something that wasn't in their job description.

Maybe a dead bear or two doesn't seem like a tragedy; we'll all see that issue differently. But in a larger sense, the bears of Katmai are assets of all US citizens, and could be argued to be assets of the world. When one individual endangers those assets for his own gain, I think we, the populus, have grounds to object. I don't know if we have a 'duty' to do so, but there certainly isn't reason not to do so.

Thanks for stepping forward. :thumbup:

 

[skitertank]

what? just do this man,dont be a statistic on the 10 oclock news,give the bear his space,take your picture from a reasonable distance,and in return the bear will spare your life.

 

[alco141]

i have simpley this to say, just like treadwell he caused the death of two bears by getting up close and personal, this is not the bears needs, this is some human need. the individual in this case has this great need to photograph one of natures most majestic and awesome creatures from a very close angle, but the consequences of a bad encounter are his death or severe injury and the destruction of the thing you are trying to preserve on film, maybe get a longer lens and stand back a ways let the bear live to be photoed by someone else. does getting your picture worth risking destruction of the bear?

and yea i have hunted bears and a lot of other things on this earth on multiple continents, i do not condone violating game laws or the wanton destruction of wildlife.

alex

 

[WalterDavis]

Evolute, something to consider-in parks like Katmai, you don't actually have to approach the bears, they'll approach you A lot of places in AK, the bears are already accustomed to having people around and that's a big part of why people go-there are rangers there who literally walk around warning people when bears are approaching from their blind side. So, he may not be breaking the law getting those pictures, or you may just want him to put a disclaimer on his threads or pics or whatnot.

 

[grey menace]

Safest distance from a bear, 50 feet and in your truck!!

 

[MikeH]

Darwinism at work, just give it a little time.

 

[Skimo]

Darwin award indeed.

Simply add disclaimers stating that in some areas it's illegal and it's suicidal to be so close.

 

[bltjr1951]

I always liked to watch people feed the bears at Yellowstone.
The look on their faces when bear would swipe the sack of food from their hands was priceless. That's when it dawned on them they were too close.
People would flock to the buffalo like they were cows in field to take pictures.
That's why there were signs all over to tell people what to do with wild animals and that the park wasn't a zoo.
The Lord has many ways to improve the gene pool.

 

[shangchi108]

There usually aren't laws against doing things that are highly dangerous specifically, because most people simply don't do them unless they have a death wish. For instance, it's not against the law to eat cyanide, but it IS against the law to commit suicide. Sounds to me like he's exhibiting suicidal behavior. Maybe you have a case from that angle.

And if that's the case, he may be violating the OP's forum's TOS, if he's inciting people to do illegal or dangerous things. That should be more than enough reason to ban and denounce him.

 

[Esav Benyamin]

There usually aren't laws against doing things that are highly dangerous specifically, because most people simply don't do them unless they have a death wish. For instance, it's not against the law to eat cyanide, but it IS against the law to commit suicide. Sounds to me like he's exhibiting suicidal behavior. Maybe you have a case from that angle.

According to Mother Gaia's children, people who love animals who eat people are the sanest people possible.

 

[Toucan Oasis]

Why the hell would it be illegal ? More " defending FreeDumb " ?
Let him be an idiot. More oxygen for us.

 

[Iboschi]

I think the O.P. had the concern that this individual was causing some issues on another forum. He was encouraging behavior like his own, and suggesting it was sane, casual, and safe. As a moderator on those boards, the O.P. wanted to stem a potential outbreak of dangerous behavior by people how don't know better. As I understood it the offender was encouraging this behavior. How did this get resolved Evolute? I'm curious how it all came together. Hope it was for the best.

 

[bltjr1951]

And if that's the case, he may be violating the OP's forum's TOS, if he's inciting people to do illegal or dangerous things.

Didn't some kid complain about learning "batoning" on here and hurt himself doing it??

 

[GWashington1732]

I think the O.P. had the concern that this individual was causing some issues on another forum. He was encouraging behavior like his own, and suggesting it was sane, casual, and safe.

Anyone who thinks walking up to a big old fuzzy thing with big claws and teeth is safe deserves to die a horrible death. He could also be lying and using a big telephoto lense.

Edit: I should have said "Deserves a grizzly death"

 

[Dnalsi]

Anyone who thinks walking up to a big old fuzzy thing with big claws and teeth is safe deserves to die a horrible death. He could also be lying and using a big telephoto lense.

Edit: I should have said "Deserves a grizzly death"

You were close enough.
Latin name for grizzly bear is
Ursus arctos horribilis

 

[Watchful]

Safest distance from a bear, 50 feet and in your accelerating truck!!

Fixed that a little bit; you were missing the bolded word.

 

[DWK2]

You were close enough.
Latin name for grizzly bear is
Ursus arctos horribilis

Sadly, the politically correct folks have pretty much succeeded in driving the "horribilis" description out of the Griz's Latin name. Now you see mostly Ursus Arctos (which is a bit redundant).

Since I'm not politically correct, I use ONLY the "horribilis" portion of the name!

DancesWithKnives

 

[12345678910]

hey i dont have a camera anymore. Can you grab his camera for me when he gets eaten by the grizzly ....?

I wouldn't do much good.

apparently you would need to get some bigger lenses for it anyway