"It's not about bears. Black bears [are] the vehicle," said Steve Huettner, past president of the Maryland Sportsmen's Association. "They don't like hunting. They don't like anything about it."
Both sides claim to have the public's support: The Department of Natural Resources released an opinion poll that showed that 65 percent of Marylanders supported bear hunting. Then the anti-hunting groups did their own poll, showing that 57 percent of the state agreed with them.
The true test of public opinion may turn out to be the hunt itself. That was how it went in New Jersey, which in December held its first bear hunt in 33 years.
The hunt succeeded in reducing the number of bears: 328 were killed.
But it also brought televised pictures of hunters hauling in furry carcasses, a reality of hunting that inflamed the opposition more.
One anecdote in particular shows how crazy New Jersey's hunt became. One morning, commuters in the town of West Milford jammed 911 lines with frantic calls about a bear cub lying wounded at the side of the road. The cub eventually died, then was carried off by a hunter -- an incident still cited by animal rights groups.
As it turned out, the animal hadn't been killed by a hunter: It was struck by a car, said Environmental Protection Commissioner Bradley M. Campbell. A hunter hauled off the dead bear and shot the carcass so that he could claim it as his kill. It was the kind of incident that allowed both sides to believe the worst about each other: Animal rights activists are hysterical; hunters are bloodthirsty.
This year in New Jersey, hunting opponents have crawled into humane bear traps and held vigils outside Campbell's home. Campbell decided he wouldn't go through it again and has refused to issue permits for a hunt this year.
"We simply can't conduct a hunt at that level of controversy," he said in an interview last week. Instead, Campbell wants the state to use strategies that don't involve killing, including possible sterilization.
In Maryland, hunting opponents say the state should spend more time using dogs and pepper spray to scare bears away from humans.
But Bender, the farmer from Accident, said he worries that his neighbors will get fed up and deal with the problem themselves.
In Garrett County, Bender said, this approach already has a name, which refers to killing the bear illegally and then burying it. It's called the "Three S's."
"Shoot, shovel and shut up," Bender said.
