NJ Bear Hunt   NJ Bear Overpopulation Issues

In a recent memo written by an anti-hunting/animal-rights group the following misleading out and out lies were posted:

·        The hunters and F&W create a fear factor to promote a bear hunt.

·        Hunters want the hunt to fuel their passion for killing.

·        Bears are killed by police simply for knocking over trash cans.

·        On “rare occasions” when homes or garages are entered by bears it is classified as a break-in and F&W ignores the real reason that homeowners did not “bear-proof” their property.

·        F&W set what they claim are non-lethal traps then arrive and shoot the bears.

·        F&W inflate the population statistics to enforce the necessity of a hunt.

·        F&W relocate bears to urban areas to incite fear among residents.

Let’s go over these points:

·        Hunters and F&W do not control the non-hunting public nor the newspapers that follow up with bear complaints and print the real facts as told by the victims. The public is scared as a direct result of overpopulated black bears infringing on their safety.

·        Hunters share a passion for the outdoors and recreation capped off by the legal right to hunt and cull legal wild game for food consumption either by themselves, family, friends or donation to food for the hungry.

·        Police have made every effort to use rubber buckshot to scare bears off for adverse conditioning; they shoot bears that continually demonstrate potential humans’ danger by returning to or breaking into homes and garages.

·        Black bear breaking into homes and garages is no longer a “rare-occasion” as homeowners are securing garbage by storing in shed and garages the black bear is following the scent into the homes and garages where they are now more dangerous than ever.

·        F&W rarely shoots a trapped black bear unless it was trapped exactly for demonstrating aggressive behavior or numerous break-ins.

·        F&W does not inflate statistics and in fact all statistics and reports are under inflated because the public does not report all black bear activity as they find it apparently does not impact the “political-web” that continues to ignore the dangers.

·        F&W relocates bears to urban areas to incite fear; herein lies the proof that these groups are warped people that have no common sense, no respect for human safety and no respect for themselves as they will concoct any story they can to drawn in gullible, innocent people that really have a love for animals, into misleading lies and information to support their cause. 

It is extremely important for the public to understand these facts, to separate the lies of anti-hunters/animal-rights groups from the truth. New Jersey is not unlike (26) other states that have thriving black bear populations. New Jersey politicians’, unlike the politicians in (26) other states however, have allowed these groups to feed lies to the public keeping this an unresolved issue.

We had a N.J. State Supreme Court review of this matter and they agreed with facts supporting a (5) year black bar management plan to include hunting as a primary tool for managing the black bear population to a level that allows for “safe” co-existence with the human population.

Then we had a change in Governors and DEP Commissioner, both with an anti-hunting philosophy that served to inflate the issue one more time resulting in the cancellation of the hunt and scrapping of the (5) year management program. Yes, after wasting several months of the N.J.State Supreme Courts’ time and taxpayer’s money N.J. politics entered the picture once again interfering in an area in which they have absolutely no experience.

The public opinion on this black bear issue has continued to lean to support of a hunt, a hunt that (26) other states, wherein politics and emotions are not allowed to figure into the equation, have been successful in controlling wild black bears to a number that allows safe co-existence with humans.

N.J. Government, to date, has not yet figured this out instead they are swayed by personal beliefs and the minority voices of radical anti-hunting/animal-rights groups that have more at stake than the actual hunting of black bears in N.J.

At stake for these groups is protecting the only battleground wherein they have succeeded in promoting their anti-hunting platform under the guise of protecting the black bear.

This is not rocket science; there is only so much land to support safe human and black bear population, we either have humans move out or reduce the number of black bears. Black bears do not pay taxes, contribute to industrial growth or create jobs and in spite of the emotional issue the anti’s have created it will not be humans that will move to make room.

Recently, at the N.J. State Fair, hundreds of domestic livestock was on display. Amazing championship cows, pigs, lambs, goats, chickens, ducks, etc. Groomed and competing for ribbons based on confirmation and looks. Just imagine that the offspring of these creatures wind up on the supermarket shelves as food. These very same farmers and the fair visitors that admire these majestic animals eat them as well. They may not do the actual killing but they do consume the food, this includes hordes of anti-hunting/animal-rights people.

A hunter has the legal right to hunt, kill, butcher and consume wild game and that same hunter is no more barbaric than those that travel to stores to purchase and consume domestic animals.

There is one main difference, wild game has a chance to escape and the hunter’s success rate clearly shows that many do, the domestic animal has no escape route..

So basically, all of us that consume meat and poultry and that is 95% of us, are not much different, nor wrong for doing so. Animals are on this earth as part of the food chain; lets’ not forget that nor criticize the method of how we obtain it.

Let’s not blame the professionals’ of our N.J. Fish and Wildlife, they do their job well and the proof is in the now healthy black bear population.

Let’s not blame the black bear for development of land and extraordinary birth rate and if a black bear could talk, they would more-than-likely love to be left alone in their natural habitant, unseen by humans with cameras and/or guns using their skills to outwit predators’.

Let’s not blame hunters’ for following the heritage of our free country pursuing the legal right to hunt and cull wild game for a healthy food source.

 - Mike D