This year I had decided I would take my young children (11, 11 and 8 years old) bear baiting for their first big game hunting experience. Hunting bears over bait is the ideal starter hunt for little ones. The action unfolds slowly, you can harvest very selectively and I'm able to  talk them through the experience.

As we approached the bait station on Saturday, I felt as though I had been sucker punched in the gut. My tree stand, game cameras and bait barrel had all been stolen by anti-hunters. (I know they were anti-hunters due to certain details left behind.) The station had been set up to to the very letter of the regulations. I had no words of wisdom to offer my brood of three. They were in shock after all the work we had put in and I was sick that this was their first big game hunting experience.

Disagree with bear baiting? Fine. Testify at a Board of Game meeting. Don't commit hunter harassment and theft. You might also reconsider your self-satisfying sense of moral superiority.