Scorning the usual bake sales, car washes, etc., Noble High School in North Berwick, Maine, is sponsoring a bear hunting raffle to raise money to send music students on a trip to NYC. In light of the number of tragic school shootings that have taken place in the U.S., for a school to associate itself with any activity supporting guns is shockingly inappropriate. Bear hunting is particularly cruel and inhumane in Maine, where unsportsmanlike practices are used that have been outlawed in every other US state.
Do we want to teach our young people to achieve their aspirations through hard work so that they value their own achievements or do we want to teach them to use guns and the exploitation of animals? Students themselves are selling tickets for this event and the owner of a chain of bear hunting camps in Maine is reaping the reward of advertising this school connection in hunting magazines sold nationwide and abroad. Although the alternative of photographing a bear is allegedly offered, this isn't mentioned in the web advertising nor have ads been placed in photography or travel magazines.
Please help ACAR in our efforts to call a halt to this ill-conceived and unacceptable fundraising attempt. If you are not a resident of Berwick, Lebanon, or North Berwick, Maine, please sign this petition. If you are an MSAD #60 resident, please sign our petition for residents at
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/2/stop-school-bear-hunt-raffle
. Thank you!
We, the undersigned, ask that you put a halt to the Noble High School bear hunt raffle and require the school to find other means of fundraising now and in the future. Although we are not residents of MSAD #60, we are appalled that any school district would sponsor such an inhumane and inappropriate event.
