Letter of the day: Killing a research bear is unethical. Make it illegal, too.

While it is not illegal to hunt and kill radio-collared research bears, it is at least unethical ("Researcher near Ely says hunter killed one of his bears," Sept. 8). Research bears are accustomed to human contact and would not necessarily run from a hunter, making them easy targets. "Sarah" was a yearling who was providing the North American Bear Center invaluable information about black bears. The time and money put into tracking and studying her has now gone down the drain, thanks to one unethical hunter. We should pass legislation protecting these bears from hunting so that, in the future, research bears are not targeted by people who have no regard for what the Bear Center and other wildlife researchers are trying to accomplish. There are plenty of bears in the forest (though why anyone would want to kill one is beyond me), so there is no reason we can't keep these bears off-limits. KATY DANIELS, MINNEAPOLIS