Bear baiting is alive and well. (And you won't be surprised to hear who's involved in it.)

Back in olden times, when humankind was a lot less advanced, a lot less evolved, a lot less gentle and kind, bear baiting meant pitting a bear (often chained) against fighting dogs or other animals. Battles were often waged in bear gardens, which may or may not have been precursors of beer gardens. Inquiring minds wouldn't mind knowing.  

In Merry Olde England, Henry VIII, when not lopping the heads off of his wives, enjoyed the sport. It was said that Puritan New Englanders frowned on bear baiting, not because it was cruel to the bears, but because the spectators so heartily enjoyed it. In Mexico and old California, it was fought bears vs. bulls, a mashup of two charming blood sports.

Interest in bear baiting dwindled over time, but it was only outlawed in South Carolina (no comment) in 2013. 

But there's a more modern definition of bear baiting, and that's where hunters set out food to attract a bear to a certain spot. The intrepid hunter - out to prove that, like Yogi, he's "smarter than the average bear" - stakes out the spot. And bang-zoom, when the bear shows up to cadge a donut, the intrepid hunter gets to kill him a bar. 

Doesn't seem quite sporting to me, but - in the states where nouveau bear baiting is legal - it accounts for most of the bears killed. 

But putting out goodies to lure the bear is apparently not okey-dokey in Utah, where well-known "hunting guide Wade Lemon faces five years in state prison for the death of a Carbon County bear killed during a guided hunt on May 18, 2018." (Source: Salt Lake City Tribune)

Now, this sort of criming would not generally hit the national news. And it only did this time because of the identity of the trigger man: one Donald Trump, Jr., a well known rugged he-man sort of big game hunter. (Lordy lord, when I went to type "hunter", I completely reflexively began it with the letter "c", unconsciously using the c-word in the Irish sense. In the case of Donald Trump, Jr., the Irish sense of major jerk definitely applies.)

Prosecutors have indicated there was no evidence showing Trump Jr. would have known about the alleged baiting that went on during the hunt.

Without naming Trump Jr., Davis County Attorney Troy Rawlings said the hunter in the case “was actually a victim and a now a possible witness in a fraudulent scheme to lead the hunter to believe it was actually a legitimate Wild West hunting situation.”

Trump, Jr. as "victim" certainly fits in nicely with the Trump family narrative. But it also fits in nicely with the gilded, privileged, doors-open-magically existence of all of the Trumps. Why would Trump, Jr., notice that the bear was just sitting there, fat, dumb, and happy with a virtual "shoot me" sign with an arrow pointing down, hanging over its head? After all, pretty much everything Jr. has "achieved" has been handed to him on a platter. So why not a bear?

The bait was a yummy (at least to a bear) combo of grain, oil, and pastries. But other illegal baiting sites attributed to Lemon's outfit have been found over the years, "one with a dead horse carcass covered in branches and a melon rind."

There are other nasty practices that help hunters out. Like treeing a bear. In one instance, "Lemon's employees had treed a bear and built a fire under the tree to keep it from escaping while they waited for their client to be brought to the site."

That sure seems fair to me.

Anyway, Donald Trump, Jr., didn't bait the bear. He just benefitted from it. Let the other guy do the dirty work.

In the grand tradition of Trump family, this sounds about right.