Bias against predators often leads to misplaced fear in the public and unscientific scapegoating of carnivorous animals. The combination of fear and bias can lead to misguided hunting and culling policies, which put animals like bears in danger. Such a policy has recently been implemented in Alaska.

The Alaska Board of Game has issued a predator control program, which allows unlimited killing of brown and black bears in southwestern Alaska. The Mulchatna bear control program gives the Department of Fish and Game the authority to kill as many bears as they can within a 40,000-square-mile area. This region closely borders several national wildlife refuges, including Brooks Falls in Katmai National Park, which is famous for Fat Bear Week. The culling program is basically an open killing season on bears with no limitations on the number of bears that can be killed or the age of bears that can killed. It even allows for the barbaric hunting of bears from low-flying planes and helicopters. In the past three years, nearly 200 bears have been killed, including at least 20 cubs.

The board claims that the program, which also allows the unlimited killing of wolves, was instated in order to protect the dwindling Mulchatna caribou herd. However, there is little scientific evidence to support this claim. According to Trustees of Alaska, “long-term studies show that intensive killing of wolves and bears has not produced lasting increases in prey herds.” Representatives from the Center of Biological Diversity, who filed the suit along with the Alaska Wildlife Alliance, instead blame disease and lack of food for the caribou population decline, both factors that are worsened by climate change.

Because the program is not based on sound science, it has been previously challenged and overturned in court. The Alaska Superior court found that the program was unconstitutional in March of 2025, citing the sustained yield clause in the Alaska constitution, which requires the state to manage its natural resources in a way that will not deplete them overtime. A week later, the Board of Game passed an emergency regulation to reimplement the culling, only to have the courts strike the program down again in mid-May. Sadly, before the courts ruled, another eleven bears had already been killed. By July, approximately 1,500 comments had been submitted by the public in opposition to the amended program and dozens of scientists, including some from Fish and Game, opposed it as well. Nonetheless, the Board unanimously voted to reinstate the program once again.

However, the fight is not over. Recently, environment and animal protection groups sued the Alaska Board of Game for violating the Alaska Constitution. “There’s no excuse for the state of Alaska to be gunning down bears from helicopters,” said Cooper Freeman, Alaska director at the Center for Biological Diversity. “This is a disgraceful misuse of public resources and a betrayal of the trust Alaskans place in their wildlife managers. State officials should protect all of our wildlife for future generations, not flaunt their power by orchestrating the mass killing of iconic bears with no scientific basis. The Mulchatna bear-killing plan is an embarrassment, and it needs to end now.”

Every animal is a sentient being, and whether they live in captivity or in the wild, they all deserve to be treated with respect, empathy, and understanding. Additionally, sound science must be used when agencies create policies relating to wildlife, and we stand with those who are defending the right of bears to exist in the United States and beyond.