Possumblog

And you thought...

...Alabama's legislators were a bunch of venal do-nothings content to find creative ways of sucking up tax dollars. Tsk, tsk, you cynical person, you!

Look at what we have now! Alabama Senate votes to make black bear official state mammal

By PHILLIP RAWLS
The Associated Press

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Alabama has an official bird, insect, reptile and amphibian, but no official state mammal. State Sen. Pat Lindsey wants to change that by giving official recognition to the black bear, a rarely seen animal that lives primarily in southwest Alabama.

On Thursday, Lindsey, D-Butler, got the Senate to vote 25-0 for his legislation declaring the black bear as the official state mammal. His bill still must be passed by the House and signed by the governor to become law.

Lindsey said school children in Escambia County suggested the legislation, and he decided to pursue it because "we've got everything else." [...]

PREACH IT, BROTHER! And let's not sell ourselves short--there's PLENTY of everything else we can be officializing--let's go through and come up with an official state everything! Official State Pastime? MISLEGISLATING!

Anyway, aside from the obvious stupidity, there's the whole issue of "why the black bear?"

Keith Guyse, assistant chief of the wildlife section of the state Conservation Department, said Alabama has a long-established population of black bears west of the Mobile Delta near Saraland. Studies have indicated there are less than 50 bears in that area, he said.

In addition, probably 20 bears have wandered from east Tennessee and northwest Georgia into northeast Alabama, but they haven't settled down and establish a bear population like those in southwest Alabama, he said.

The bears tend to keep to themselves and are rarely seen, although one recently made big news. Deer hunter Kenneth Scoggin of Chunchula reported he shot and killed a 165-pound female bear on Nov. 25 after it ripped the skin off his knee.

Some states allow the hunting of black bears, but Alabama has not since 1940. Killing a bear in Alabama — except in self-defense — can bring a fine of up to $5,000 and up to a year in jail.

The black bears in Alabama tend to be small, typically weighing about 120 pounds, Guyse said. "There are no real big ones. One that weighs 200 pounds is a big one," he said.

70 scrawny black bears. You know, for an official state something-or-other, wouldn't you at least want something, I don't know, special? Most abundant? Biggest? Smallest? Funnest to play with? Something that people actually associate with Alabama? Why not deer? Got enough of those, that's for sure--and they tend to weigh more than the bears. Coon dogs? Bobcats? Squirrels? Possums? Hey, what about People? Why not make humans the state mammal!?

Posted by Terry Oglesby at January 19, 2006 04:16 PM