Campaign Action
It's not clear exactly why Republicans nationwide are so damn focused on shooting bears, but focused they are. Wyoming may be the next state to decide that what's really been holding their state back from greatness is the inability for rich jerks to put grizzly bear corpses in their houses—and it comes after intensive efforts to save the bears from extinction.
A Wyoming wildlife commission will vote Wednesday on whether to approve the state’s first grizzly bear hunt in more than four decades, a proposal that could lead to the killing of as many as 22 bears just one year after Yellowstone-area grizzlies were removed from the endangered species list.
There are currently about 700 grizzlies in the lower 48 states, total; that number being deemed sufficient—problem solved forever!—hunters and Republicans say it's time to start culling them back again. But there would be restrictions; according to the Washington Post, the Wyoming plan would still bar hunting in "a region east of Grand Teton where several bears adored by photographers and tourists are known to roam and den." Having learned the lesson of Cecil the Lion, the powers that be do not want those nationally famous bears to be the ones killed, because the blowback on that would no doubt be something fierce.
The Wyoming decision is of course not the first of the year's proposals to allow more bear shooting. The Trump administration is seeking to do away with rules limiting how brown and black bears can be hunted; under the new proposal, mighty manly hunters would be allowed to lure bears using bait, blind them with floodlights, and bravely shoot bear cubs still hiding in their dens.
You know, because trophy hunters are all about pitting themselves against the perils of nature by ... shining a flashlight at bear cubs in their dens and then shooting them as they look back, confused.
That said, I'm not the target audience here. There's a constituency of, checking the numbers, at least 22 people who find it damn important they be able to shoot one of America's last large species, and a great many more who won't rest until they're allowed the primal thrill of shooting bear cubs still in their dens. Why these are important people to coddle, for Republicans across the nation, I'll never know.