Dori: Legendary rocker, hunter Ted Nugent weighs in on Leavenworth bear attack

The phone has barely stopped ringing for local wildlife expert Tom Nelson since he blamed “woke politics” for a Leavenworth park bear attack that sent one woman to the hospital last weekend.

Now, fresh off several network TV news appearances for his outspoken comments, Nelson – who hosts The Outdoor Line on Seattle Sports 710 AM – has snagged the attention of hard-rock legend, hunting and fishing enthusiast, and conservative rights advocate Ted Nugent.

A past guest on The Dori Monson Show, Nugent reached out to Nelson during Dori’s Friday show to applaud Nelson, saying, “I feel like we’re blood brothers.”

“I’m addicted to truth, logic, and common sense,” Nugent told Nelson. “When I see other people celebrating it – unambiguously and fearlessly – I need to track them down.”

Nugent – the guitarist and voice behind the 1977 hit “Cat Scratch Fever” – told Nelson he was impressed by the connection Nelson made between the Oct. 22 bear attack and “touchy-feely, nonsensical woke wildlife management putting the public at risk.”

More from Dori: Wildlife expert: ‘Woke’ politics to blame for Leavenworth bear attack

Nelson’s comments came in the wake of last Saturday’s morning attack involving a mother bear who charged a woman out walking her dogs in the Bavarian-themed town’s Enchantment Park. Bear populations have increased in populated areas, Nelson said, because state laws have restricted spring hunting season and eliminated the use of hound dogs during designated bear hunting seasons.

“Encounters like this are avoidable,” Nelson told Dori’s Monday listeners. “This is a complete tragedy on both sides. Nobody wins.”

The likelihood that bears would be foraging in a town park would be far less if lawmakers and voters weren’t “making political decisions about biological situations for political considerations,” he continued.
Since that attack, the woman has been treated for non-life-threatening injuries. The mother bear, meanwhile, was tracked and killed by a Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) team using a Karelian Bear dog. The bear’s two 9-month-old cubs were taken to a PAWS wildlife rehabilitation center, according to WDFW.

Responsible hunting, fishing, and trapping, Nugent agreed, could have helped prevent this encounter.

“When I see a guy like Tom Nelson and you, Dori, celebrating the truth, logic, and common sense of real nature, real habitat, real sustained yields … the successful model of wildlife management that the whole word envies … I celebrate that,” said Nugent, whose longtime fans fondly refer to him as “The Nuge” and “Uncle Ted.”

“Great Apache chiefs said God has given us everything we need,” continued Nugent, whose “Spirit of the Wild” show appears on The Outdoor Channel. “Over the past 35 years, hunters in America have donated a quarter of a billion – 250 million meals of nutritious venison to soup kitchens and homeless shelters every year – and that comes from hunting, fishing, and trapping.”

Hunters for the Hungry and Sportsmen Against Hunger donate “more healthy protein to charities than any other force on Planet Earth,” the rocker added.

Continuing to host outdoor events in Michigan and hunting, meanwhile, keep him healthy, Nugent said.

“I’m 74 and having the greatest hunting season of my life,” Nugent went on. “I’m not jumping off amplifiers anymore because I had to get new knees.”

Nugent said he now works to encourage “hunting families” and conservatives to register to vote in part because lawmakers are seeking “more gun laws, but they’re not enforcing the laws that are already on the books.”

“Simple fixes,” Nugent believes, could address many of the perceived problems involving conservation, hunting, fishing, trapping, and firearms.

“If a stupid guitar player who wrote ‘Wango Tango’ can figure it out, nobody’s got an excuse.”

Listen to Dori Monson weekday afternoons from noon – 3 p.m. on KIRO Newsradio, 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.