Environmentalist and primatologist Jane Goodall is buying chances to win a Wyoming hunting license to bag a grizzly bear. But she never intends to go through with the hunt.
Goodall, 84, known for her work with chimpanzees, is teaming up in this endeavor with Cynthia Moss, 78, who is famous for fighting elephant poachers in Africa. But they don’t intend to hunt the grizzly; theirs is an act of civil disobedience.
Goodall and Moss are protesting Wyoming’s first legalized hunt in 44 years of 22 grizzly bears, National Geographic reported. Slated to be held in the Yellowstone region, the hunt comes one year after the grizzly was removed from federal protection.
The Wyoming Wildlife Commission unanimously approved the measure two months ago, 7-0.
The campaign against the planned trophy hunting, called “Shoot ‘em With A Camera, Not A Gun,” has gained steam, mainly among women, and caught state officials by surprise, National Geographic reported.
The plan is to overload the state’s hunting lottery system with applications from nonhunters. Those who receive one of the coveted 22 permits will head to the mountains when the season starts, armed with a camera rather than a gun.
“People felt desperate, wanting to do something positive that could help keep these bears alive. I think we surprised ourselves at how much public support this has gotten in so little time,” Lisa Robertson, a Jackson Hole conservationist, told National Geographic.
The campaign grew as a grassroots effort on social media and from an ad in the Jackson Hole newspaper in which local Ann Smith provided her personal phone number.
“What stunned me is the number of positive calls I’ve received and 85 to 90 percent have come from women,” Smith said, National Geographic reported. “No one has called me up on the phone and yelled at me.”
Smith also promotes the campaign by driving around Jackson Hole in a replica antique pick-up truck with a huge teddy bear in the bed sporting a sign that reads “Grizzly Lives Matter.” Reaction to that has been positive, also.
“I’ve received lots of affirmative horn honks and people giving me thumbs up,” she said, National Geographic reported.
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