Jodi Peterson

Associate Editor

A few days ago, we wrote about pigeon hobbyists in Oregon who slaughter falcons and hawks to protect their birds (“Kill a falcon, save a … pigeon??”). Now comes more bad wildlife news from Oregon.

According to the Daily Astorian, at least 10 black bear carcasses were discovered dumped in a remote wildlife refuge. The reason? The bears were killing pine trees on private timberlands by clawing them for sap. So the timber companies hired trappers to dispatch them, Sopranos-style:

.. (T)he bears ranged in age from adult males to cubs and their mothers, said (Gary Ziak, who discovered the carcasses while building logging roads). They had been snared, then shot in the head, months before regular hunting season begins Aug. 1.

“The really bad thing is, there are young cubs there,” Ziak said, noting the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife owns the property. “This is animal abuse in the name of science, or in the name of money.”

… As it turns out, big game carcasses will continue building at this local spot as the state unloads bears killed on private forestland in Clatsop County during “bear damage season,” typically starting in spring months and ending in late June.

While this kind of destructive greed is hardly unique to Oregon, perhaps the state should consider revising its motto. “She Kills all the Wild Things” seems more apt than the existing slogan, “She Flies with Her Own Wings.”