Alaska bans tasers on bears, moose, fearing “catch and release” hunting

Taser gun for bear and moose

Alaska is banning use of tasers on wildlife like moose and bears. Because they would rather people just shoot them with a real gun.

Alaska Department of Fish & Game biologist Larry Lewis proposed that the Game board ban tasers on wildlife because he worried about “catch and release hunting.”

“Conceivably someone could Tase a moose or bear, go up and get a picture taken with it, shut the (Taser) off and then release the animal,” he told the Fairbanks Daily News Miner.

Lewis is the state’s “taser expert”; he’s pioneered its use and he trains wildlife control officers in how to tase moose or bear. It’s potentially a great way to avoid killing or even drugging an animal. Plus, if you tase a grizzly, they won’t want to come back to where they’ve been bothering people.

Cops will still be able to tase a moose. Regular civilians will still be able to zap a bear that’s charging them or destroying their car. You just can’t recreationally tase an animal.

“Catch and release” hunting is a real concept. But it’s like the “internet hunting” of the right: an inflammatory concept that isn’t really happening. Just the idea pisses off many hunters. In 2007 a group called the World Hunting Association dreamed up a plan for big buck hunting with drug darts. “Hunters have been so disgusted by the very idea to turn the honored hunting heritage into a sport, that thousand have written letters and emails in protest,” one hunter blogger reported. The NRA said it would debase the sport.

The question is: has anyone ever done it? Lewis told the paper he wanted the the rule to “kind of head off at the pass any non-trained use of this equipment.” So, I’m guessing no.