Bro’s Bear-Spearing Video Is Canada’s Harambe Moment

In early June I got an email from Change.org imploring me to sign one of several Harambe-related petitions.

"Hundreds of thousands of people around the world are taking action after news spread that an endangered gorilla living at the Cincinnati Zoo—Harambe—was shot and killed by zoo officials when a child climbed into the zoo's gorilla exhibit," it read, going on to list petitions like Support 'Harambe's Law' for the gorilla killed in Cincinnati and Justice for Harambe. (Newer additions include Make Harambe a Pokémon and Put Harambe on the dollar bill.)

Shit, I thought. People are really worked up over this dead gorilla.

It's not a new phenomenon though. Harambe's demise, like Cecil the Lion's before him, enraged the entire world—tapping into a unique stock of anger humans reserve for when one of us "senselessly" kills a wild or exotic beast. Now, it seems Canada is having its own Harambe moment.

This week, footage emerged of a corny American bro named Josh Bowmar spearing a black bear in Alberta. Hunting bears is legal in Alberta, but the manner in which Bowmar, a professional javelin thrower (ugh) and personal trainer, executed the kill seems to have really pissed people off.

Warning: graphic. Video via Youtube

The Youtube video (the original has been made private due to the backlash) shows Bowmar throwing a two-metre spear at a bear he'd baited. After it pierces the bear's side, he brags about how he "drilled him perfect" from more than 10 metres away.

"Yeah, I got mad penetration. That's a dead bear."

Apparently not wanting his audience to miss out on any grotesque angle—or the fact that he's a total dick—Bowmar even attached a GoPro to the spear.

Bowmar and his companions go back for the bear the next day and find him 60 to 70 yards away from where he was speared—with his intestines coming out of his body.

Unsurprisingly, people are now threatening to kill Bowmar. According to the Postmedia, one Youtube user wrote:

"Dude … I am going to make it my mission … to hunt you down … and then I'm going to do to you … what you did to that bear … then I'm going to take your head … and it will be kept as my (expletive) trophy. Mark my words … I WILL find you."

The Alberta government has vowed to ban spear hunting, which officials described as an "archaic" practice.

In a statement to the Canadian Press, Bowmar said he was baffled by the outrage and that the kill was "as humane and ethical as one could get in a hunting situation on big game animals."

Personally, I don't take a moral stance against hunting. But Bowmar's video displayed such a lack of self-awareness that frankly it's not hard to see why people feel violent towards him.

It reminds me of the two men who were recently charged for chasing a moose via boat in a BC lake, jumping on its back, and riding it. And of the group of tourists to the Dominican Republic who ran into the ocean and dragged a shark onto the beach so they could take selfies with it. The shark died.

Animals are not props whose sole purpose is to help us rack up views and likes on Instagram. Hunting them—hopefully in the most efficient and humane way possible—is an activity that should be handled respectfully, rather than seen as an opportunity to brag about "mad penetration."

Going back to Harambe, I'm not totally sure what could have been done differently. Accidents happen and at the end of the day, a kid's life is always going to be valued more than an animal's.

But when it comes to these other scenarios, using common sense and tact might be just as effective as something like 'Harambe's Law.'

Follow Manisha Krishnan on Twitter.