I agree with you, but find that it's much more persuasive to folks who could care less about a bear to point out that there are also consequences for *them.*

I care more about the bear than they do. They care about their wallet and their convenience, ie not losing a few granola bars and Mountain House they paid #$% money for. If I told the yokels who are just getting into backpacking they need to worry more for the bear, they'd call me a treehugger and ignore me.

And when along come folks I can tell will care about the bear and the future of the wilderness and Leave No Trace, I tell them more about damage it does to bears, and they run right out and buy an approved canister.

In this thread, I have no idea what the OP does or does not care about, but all other points had been brought up - so I mentioned the possibility of fines for breaking existing regulations in addition to them.