First it was the gray wolves and now it's the grizzly bears. Since when did 500 of any animal in such a large area mean that the population is safe and ready to be hunted?
The Interior Department said in 2005 that it intended to delist grizzly bears around Yellowstone in the states of Idaho, Montana and Wyoming. The species remains protected in other parts of Idaho, Montana and Washington state; Alaska, where the bear was never threatened, is the only other place where the species roams.Who needs science anymore, anyway? It's all about creating exclusive hunting businesses for the Dick Cheney's of the world.
Stripping the bears of protection could eventually clear the way for limited hunting of the animals. A measure that would allow such hunting has passed the Montana Senate.
Opponents of the delisting, including more than 250 scientists and researchers who sent the government a letter of protest this week, question whether the bear population is large enough to be genetically diverse and withstand outside pressures such as global warming and food scarcity.
