artistic products 15

Ethics are rules of conduct or moral values which guide the behavior of particular communities. Ethics can reflect a cultural lens through which we view the world. They represent our life-long learning experiences and expectations of how to behave, and what is expected of us as individuals in society. Some people, regardless of the biological basis of sustainable hunting, will not accept hunting because of their personal views.

Animal rights activists and other anti-hunters suggest that they represent the best interests of bears. They believe that bears are special and ought not to be hunted. Often, bears are deified or made into an icon while hunters are demonized. Anti-hunters seek to take on the role of “saviours” in the mind of the public while characterizing hunters, conservationists in their own right, as the “enemy.”

The hunting of bears creates a direct interest in proper bear conservation. Thus, more resources are devoted to population and habitat inventories and habitat protection. If bears don't have some economic value there is a risk of them becoming a nuisance to society and taking on vermin status. Without hunters and hunting revenues, there would be much less interest in the bear and investment in its management.

Animal rights activists mistake the survival of individual bears with the best interests of the bear population as a whole. Stopping hunting to save individual bears will not affect the major problems of garbage management and habitat loss. Nor will it solve the problem of what to do with bears that come into conflict with humans.