The Trump administration has officially approved the use of bacon, doughnuts, and meat scraps to lure bears into the crosshairs on federal land in Alaska. The rule, published Friday in the Federal Register, takes effect in mid-November and replaces a 2024 ban that existed because the science said feeding bears human food makes them more dangerous to people. Somewhere, a grizzly is getting the best news of his life, right up until he isn't.
The Breakfast Buffet Of Death
Here's how it works, according to reporting from The Guardian. A hunter fills a steel drum or garbage can with food, then monitors it. When a bear shows up to eat, the hunter shoots it from a nearby blind at short range.
That's the whole sport. Set out a snack, wait for the guest, fire. It's less hunting than a very lethal version of leaving cookies out for Santa.
The federal rule doesn't list specific foods, but it defers to Alaska's state rules, which allow baiting. Nicholas Arrivo, a managing attorney at Animal Protection Law, said hunters use "the cheapest and most effective food, which is high fat and high sugar." So yes, doughnuts. The same stuff that's quietly ruining your cardiologist's day is now federal wildlife policy.
The Science Says This Gets People Hurt
Let's be clear about why the ban existed in the first place. The Biden administration reimposed it in 2024 largely because research shows baiting makes bears more aggressive around humans and puts park visitors' lives at risk.
Think about what that means in practice. You train a bear to associate people and human food with a free meal. Then you shoot some of them, and the survivors keep the lesson about people and snacks. Then a family from Ohio shows up on a trail with a bag of trail mix.
Opponents made exactly this point. Drew Robertson, senior regulatory specialist for Humane World for Animals, called the practice "cruel and dangerous, not only to wildlife but the public as well." Environmental groups went further and called the rule "indefensible and inexcusable."
A Ping-Pong Match With Dead Bears
This fight has a long and stupid history. The Obama administration put the ban in place. The first Trump administration undid it. Litigation then upheld the Obama rule and overturned the Trump one. Biden brought the ban back in 2024. Now Trump is killing it again.
So the same policy has been rewritten, sued over, struck down, and rewritten again across four administrations. The one constant is that courts have already sided with the ban once. If you're keeping score at home, the Trump side lost the last time it tried this.
The reversal came straight from the top. It flows from an executive order issued in the early days of Trump's second term, titled Unleashing Alaska's Extraordinary Resource Potential. Robertson said it was "a priority for the president," which suggests "a political motivation, not something that seems to be derived from careful consideration." Hard to argue when the order itself directed the agency to reissue the rule.
Federal Land, Except When It Isn't
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum framed the rule as a "commonsense framework" that "gives Alaskans a stronger voice in decisions affecting the lands, wildlife and traditions they know best." It's a nice line. It also skips a detail.
These are federal lands. Arrivo pointed out that Congress created the federal land program to give decision-making power to the federal government, not state governments. Handing the call to Alaska, he said, "is anathema to federal land management goals" of preserving wildlife diversity.
The Interior Department also scrapped a 2024 rule that had gone through a more robust scientific process. Arrivo said that move "doesn't smell right and raises questions about the legality of this rule." No decision has been made yet about a lawsuit, but given the history here, nobody should be shocked when one lands.
Part Of A Very Specific Pattern
This isn't a one-off. It's the latest in a string of rule changes at the state and federal level since 2023 that critics call barbaric and unethical. Alaska and federal officials have recently allowed hunters to shoot bears from helicopters, shoot swimming caribou from motor boats, kill wolf pups in their dens, and use artificial lights to draw bears out of their dens so they can be killed.
Read that list again. Wolf pups. In their dens. Somebody sat in a meeting and decided that was the freedom worth fighting for.
To be fair, bear baiting isn't unheard of. About a dozen states allow something similar, though more states don't than do. Robertson noted that many hunters themselves wouldn't call it fair chase. When the people who like hunting say your hunting looks a little extreme, that's a sign.
The Dingo Take
In 2024, the federal government banned bear baiting on Alaska's federal lands because the science said it endangered park visitors. In 2026, it's legal again, and the bacon is optional but encouraged. Two years. That's how long a safety rule built on evidence survived against a political priority.
Notice what changed in between. Not the bears. Not the biology. Bears still get aggressive when you teach them that humans mean doughnuts. What changed is who's signing the paperwork, and who owes favors to the trophy hunting crowd.
The Interior Department ditched a rule backed by a thorough scientific process and replaced it with a vibe. The vibe is that Alaskans know best, except the land belongs to every American, including the ones who'd like to hike it without meeting a sugar-addicted grizzly. When the next hiker gets mauled, remember who put the snack bar out.
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