Would This Be Considered Baiting Bears?

Imagine this. You just shot your first deer. Not only is it your first buck but it is your very first time deer hunting. Then out of nowhere a bear appears and starts munching on your deer. That one bear then becomes four bears as three more arrive.

Sounds like a tall tale, doesn’t it. Except that it isn’t.

That is exactly what happened to Jordan Zabinski on her first time deer hunting in Clearfield County, Pennsylvania over Thanksgiving weekend.

I’ll let her take over the story:

“I was so terrified of a bear, and my husband was like, ‘I’ve never seen a bear except for this one time,’ he said, ‘don’t worry, you’re not gonna see one,’” Jordan Zabinkski said…

“I hear like, crunching. And I’m like ‘there’s a deer, there’s a deer!” she said. But it wasn’t another deer, Her biggest fear had come true. She was staring at four black bears. “And then right behind it comes three, and I’m like ‘okay, now there are four bears.’”

After multiple unanswered texts and calls to her husband, who was helping her brother load a deer he had killed, she started to worry.

“At first I was really quiet, but then I really started to freak out,” Zabinski said. After finally getting a hold of her husband, she had to wait about 30 more minutes, so she tried to keep as quiet as possible. “It’s been a while now and no one’s coming. What if they don’t to get me in time?”

Eventually Jordan’s husband and brother arrived. Yelling at the bears was enough to get them to leave. Fortunately, for Jordan the only damage that the bears did was to the tail.

From what I understand, Pennsylvania does allow bear hunting but you are required to have a bear tag. However, from what I can tell, Jordan was in Wildlife Management Unit 2E where the season was closed when she got her deer.

According to the Pennsylvania Game Commission, it is unlawful to put food or minerals out to attract bears. That, of course, leads to the question – is the deer that you just killed considered baiting if it attracts four bears? The answer should be an emphatic NO but one never knows.


One thought on “Would This Be Considered Baiting Bears?”

  1. … is the deer that you just killed considered baiting if it attracts four bears?

    If it’s like any other area of law, if they want to get someone, they’ll stack charges.

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