Supporters of the bear hunting referendum to appear on the November ballot consider the issue to be mainly a moral one, and so the arguments regarding the science of wildlife management appear to have little impact upon them. If animal activists insist on raising a moral objection in this debate, then those of us who support Maine hunters should feel at liberty to talk about morality also.

We can begin with this assessment. Modern Americans live the most consumptive way of life in history. In order to meet our insatiable demand for luxury, the entire globe is pawed over for energy, chemicals, plant fiber, exotic foods and precious minerals. And thanks to modern agriculture, millions of domestic animals are enslaved and butchered each year to satisfy a taste for meat that far exceeds our need for nutrition.

Indeed, I would argue that our industrial way of life is more cruel and destructive to animals of all kinds than any type of sport hunting practiced today. Let us consider one horrific example taken from agriculture, milk production.

In order to induce a cow to lactate, we inseminate her artificially at about 15 months of age, as soon as she weighs enough to bear a calf. She is then subjected to a series of lactation and calving cycles about one year apart. Most cows today last only about 2.5 cycles before being slaughtered, at about 4 or 5 years of age. Her calves, meanwhile, are eaten if they are male or forced to produce milk like the mother was if they are female and a replacement for the mother is needed. Many cows today do not even graze in a pasture, but are fed artificial diets designed to support high milk production.

To me, this relationship between milk consumers and dairy cows is morally repugnant and more disgusting than anything we do to bears.

Maine bears live much as they always have. Some grow to old age. Even those killed during a hunt have lived in freedom until then. The bears most likely to be caught are young adults who are inexperienced or individuals who lack caution. Even then, most bears escape. The hunter success rate for snares is about 20 percent, for baiting about 25 percent and for hounds about 30 percent. For hunting by stalking and waiting, as for deer, the success rate at the present time in Maine is only about 2 percent.

The real issue in this debate is that many Americans just don’t like hunting. In hunting, the killing seems intentional, whereas most people today can pretend that they have no role in killing because the millions of domestic animals they eat each year are slaughtered for them, out of sight and mind.

I think that people who like bears can help them most by opposing human population growth and urban sprawl. The endless conversion of the countryside into new housing developments, shopping malls and highways actually threatens bears by destroying their habitat, unlike sport hunting. Yet I see almost no concern, fear or outrage on the part of the general public about this process.

I conclude that the new morality on bear hunting is just a shift in cultural attitudes brought on by suburbanization. Modern Americans have a romantic and emotional view of nature, but in practice our behavior toward it is highly destructive.

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Gary Fogg lives in Topsham.