In the past year or so, every Mainer had become educated in the process of baiting bear, whether they wanted to or not.  The advertising for Maine's bear baiting referendum was ferocious. One thing that we heard a lot about was the so called "junk food" that trappers used to bait bear.

This past September in the neighboring state of New Hampshire, officials there discovered four dead black bears at a trapping site.  The black bears including two cubs were found within 50 feet of a trapping site.  A hunter had placed 100 pounds of chocolate and donuts there as bait.

Wildlife officials had the University of New Hampshire conduct an autopsy on the dead bears and discovered a high level of theorbromine, which is described as a naturally occurring toxic ingredient in chocolate.   The animals had overdosed, experienced heart failure, and died.

Animal experts in New Hampshire are now looking at creating new regulations to limit the use of chocolate as bait.

Andrew Timmins, the state Fish and Game Department's bear project leader told a commission this week that "the best way to stop this from happening again is to remove chocolate from the woods."

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