Reply to a recent blog on culling bears in Slovenia

http://www.carniola.org/2007/02/blowing-away-bears-in-slovenia.htm

I can't figure out if the author of this blog is being sarcastic or serious. I am living in Slovenia now with my girlfriend, and I love bears and am more frustrated with the lack of information or tours available to view bears in the wild (NOT HUNT THEM!). This whole business of so-called culling the bears is completely wrong. Whether or not the government’s estimates as to the amount of bears in Slovenia is accurate or not, this is not the way. There are other ways: relocation, castration of male bears to stop population growth and so on. It's also not possible to count the bear population as it's highly likely that the bears travel between Slovenia and Croatia.

But the worst thing in the world would be to stoop to Russia's level and allow bear hunting tourism to take place here in Slovenia, just to make money and make some stupid tourist feel like a big man for killing a bear!! The bear hunting tourists in Russia are being lead to easy targets and are killing defenceless female bears and leaving their cubs to die.

As for the hunters tasked with the cull in Slovenia, these are the same people who recently hunted a so-called aggressive and dangerous bear for (defending its cubs) and causing the starvation and death of its cubs.

If the government wants to profit from its bears, then it should try organising bear watching tours so people can appreciate the bears and learn more about them, which is something the majority of tourists would like and something that is sorely needed here.

Take a closer look at the photo at the top of this page and ask yourself, do you really want to kill this wonderful creation of nature?