ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, May 12, 1996 TAG: 9605130100
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LOS ANGELES TIMES
After 16 years of taking terminally ill children to Disneyland, a Super Bowl game or meetings with athletes and actors, the Make-A-Wish Foundation was unprepared for what a teen-ager suffering from a brain tumor wanted most: to shoot a Kodiak bear in Alaska.
But it didn't blink. It turned to Safari Club International, which collected donations including $4,000, airline tickets, a .340-Magnum rifle, binoculars, hunting clothing, an outfitter and a taxidermist.
Now, the program that has provided thousands of families with joyful memories to help ease the depression of losing a child is on the hit list of virtually every animal-rights group in the nation.
On Friday, the Humane Society of the United States asked the foundation to withdraw its offer of a guided trophy bear hunt, and to bar any wish that could result in cruelty to animals.
``Trophy hunting inflicts needless and undeniable pain, trauma and death on animals for the sake of amusement,'' John Grandy, Humane Society vice president, wrote the foundation.
Sending the young man to Alaska to photograph a Kodiak bear ``would be a particularly appropriate alternative,'' he said.
The same day, the Los Angeles animal-rights group Ark Trust Inc. secured an alternative proposal for the young man and his family - a chance to spend a day with actor Pierce Brosnan on the Idaho set of his new James Bond film.
And the Fund for Animals, among the nation's most aggressive anti-hunting organizations, posted ``alerts'' about the Minnesota teen-ager's wish on the Internet and in the monthly magazine Bunny Huggers Gazette.
But it was all too late.
On Friday, Erik, whose last name is being withheld, was already stalking a bear on the Alaska peninsula with a permit donated by a German hunter, according to Don McMillan, a spokesman for the Safari Club chapter in Minnesota.
``With the help of 20 contributors, this boy is now in Alaska taking his bear hunt,'' said McMillan, a dentist. ``We hope he gets one.''
``That's too bad,'' said Gretchen Wyler, president of Ark Trust, which has worked closely with the foundation over the years.
``It's a perverse, chilling twist on the phrase `death wish,''' Wyler said. ``It's amazing to think that someone whose life is about to end chose to extinguish the life of a Kodiak bear, the largest land carnivore in North America.''
``The foundation will never be able to sustain the damage this will do to their image, especially in the Hollywood community,'' she added. ``They will rue the day they ever let the Safari Club be a partner.''
Make-A-Wish foundation president James E. Gordon declined to be interviewed. But in a prepared statement, he said the foundation, which has helped 38,000 youngsters, ``grants wishes to children up to 18 years of age who have life-threatening illnesses. Our wishes are limited only by the child's imagination, and often reflect the activities and way of life to which the child is accustomed.
``The wish of a Minnesota boy to hunt Kodiak bear in Alaska has been approved by the board of directors of our Minnesota chapter. It is the sincere wish of the youngster and reflects a lifelong involvement in family fishing and hunting trips.''
Steve Wells of the Alaska Wildlife Alliance, however, said hunting big brown bears in Alaska in the spring jeopardizes females with dependent young.
Ron Marlenee, a lobbyist for Safari Club International, countered that the Alaska brown bear is the most carefully managed species in the nation.
``When hunters and nonhunters alike go out to see wildlife, whether it be deer, moose, Rocky Mountain elk, birds or anything else,'' he said, ``those animals are there because sportsmen put up the dollars to protect them and their habitat.''
Humane Society spokesman Wayne Pacelle said the debate is not about ``who pays for conservation. This is about a reputable charity organization that has granted a wish that will result in cruelty to animals, and that is entirely inappropriate.''
LENGTH: Medium: 77 linesby CNB