The black bears in New Jersey had been successfully preserved through the years as a result of efforts from the New Jersey Fish & Wildlife/Fish & Game Commission and the professional state biologists. Supporting and upholding these laws were the sportsmen of N.J., the very same “hunters” now accused by the anti’s of wanting to annihilate the black bear.
Since 2000 however, the efforts of NJF&W/F&G have been thwarted by animal-right/anti-hunting groups that have managed to turn black bear overpopulation into a political issue. This all started through the weakness of former Governor Whitman, whose last minute decision to stop the 2000 hunt laid the groundwork for the issues we are facing today.
On a national level, animal-right/anti-hunting organizations lost the majority of battles wherein they attempted to shift the responsibility of wildlife management from F&G professionals to politicians. Therefore, the anti’s honed in on New Jersey as a last battleground. They picked the right state where vote hungry politicians were always ready to jump into any arena that might lead to more votes.
It is an actual, documented fact that out of (27) states with large enough black bear populations to require “population-control” only New Jersey politicians have allowed inexperienced, emotional driven, animal-right/anti-hunting groups to interfere with the long-standing and successful population management of black bears made possible through “HUNTING”.
Now we have a new no-nothing group opening up shop under:
“Northern New Jersey Bear Alliance”
Their goal in a “nutshell” to dispel the myth of black bears being predatory or dangerous creatures. So this new organization starts off with lies and misleading information; same ole, same ole anti’s nonsense.
Here are some examples from their web information site:
The Controversy Continues: They, NNJBA, cite 1970 when the game authorities suspended bear hunting due to a diminished population Then just listen to this non-sense; For the next (33) years residents coexisted peacefully with what bears existed. In 2003 under pressure from hunting lobbyist organizations a hunt was approved.
“Well, of course people existed peacefully; you hardly saw a bear because they were growing in numbers but still had enough “then-undeveloped-land” to roam in peace.”
Hunters, hunters mind you, not the millions of non-hunting citizens from Wayne, Totowa, Morristown, Passaic, Bergen and now all of the counties in New Jersey, only hunters want you to believe that the current overpopulation is a “point-of-concern”. Another misconception, as currently millions of N.J. citizens understand “overpopulation dangers” and support a black bear hunt.
NNJBA states; the state (N.J.) has contracted a state university in PA. to conduct a population study, Well want to know why? Because the politicians and anti’s in New Jersey have so put down our own F&W professionals that any numbers NJF&G reports is quickly challenged by these groups and taken to court.
NNJBA states that regulated hunts has no effect in reducing incidents or encounters. This is a major outright, anti-hunting lie. Contact any of the (26) states with large black bear populations and find out what problems they would be facing today if they had allowed their black bear populations to grow to whatever number they could reach through the years.
Sport-Trophy- Recreational Hunting:
NNJBA, claims that modern weaponry has taken the actual “thrill” of the hunt out of the equation. “High-powered- recurve bows”; (no such weapon exists as a high-powered- recurve bow) in fact, the same poundage’s have existed since the recurve bows introduction), Compound bows, shotguns with scopes, crossbows give the hunter an advantage?
I believe there is some confusion on the author’s behalf here; so the NNJBA would rather see the old weapons used, that were less effective in many hands, rather than a modern weapon that enables culling of the animal quickly and cleanly, with the animal suffering as little as possible.
NNJBA further states that they have no opposition against an individual enjoying his sport of shooting, but its opposition is centered on the reasons why an animal’s life (bear-deer-turkey, etc (etc???) must be taken for “bragging rights”
So if I read through this confusion then; NNJBA is not against hunting as long as traditional hunting equipment is used and only small bears, deer and turkeys are harvested and they are carried out of the woods rather than being transported by an ATV or pick-up???
Well, let’s see that would pertain to about 10% of the hunters in N.J. as the majority hunt any size game, don’t use ATC’S or trucks in the woods and in fact these vehicles are not even allowed on the state lands.
A Changing Perception
NNJBA wants to convince the public that fear of a black bear is unfounded. The fact that a black bear has not killed a human in 110 years refutes this contention by proponents of a hunt, “they say.”
Well here we go again, 110 years, it was only 1970 when we had hardly any bears in N.J. and 110 years ago this was a state with vast forests and fewer people travelling about on horseback and horse drawn wagons, Wyatt Earp was still alive, come on; we all know that a 110 year history has absolutely no bearing on black bear activities taking place from 2000 to 2009 when overpopulation came into play.
In America we have learned to prepare for and avoid tragedies, not to ignore warnings like looking past the numerous black bear to human dangerous encounters, the documented and proven increases in all overall, intrusive, black bear behavior and instead consider only “meaningless statistics” from non-professional tree-huggers, that will result in some unsuspecting, mislead human to be seriously mauled or killed by a “2009” overpopulated black bear.
Look, this is no longer an issue of; No Feeding Bans, Trash Control, property bear-proofing and adverse-conditioning techniques through educational literature and leaflet handouts.
Almost everyone knows this now and in fact the New Jersey Division of Fish & Wildlife has had this information posted on their website for years along with leaflet handouts as well.
Game over; none of this will reduce the current, black bear overpopulation problem, nor contain that population through the coming years.
The ignorance of these groups should be quite clear to even the simplest mind as they attempt to have people ignore the numbers; the continual rise in domestic and livestock attacks and killing, attacks on humans, human to black bear dangerous encounters, house break-ins and the overall increase in black bear complaints in general.
Twenty-six other states have successfully used hunting, many for decades, as the most effective method of black bear population control, it works, and they maintain a healthy number of black bears and reduce the dangers to humans to the lowest possible levels.
It is these animal-right/anti-hunting groups that pose the greatest danger for the New Jersey Black Bear; if they are not hunted to an acceptable population that allows the majority of black bears to enjoy the seclusion of forests that can support their existence, they will soon be regarded as “vermin” and this will have greater negative consequences for the black bear that hunting ever could.
Remember, no one, F&G, hunters or non-hunters supporting a black bear hunt would ever let the black bear be hunted to extinction, after all this is “2009” , it won’t happen.
Support a N.J. black bear hunt, we cannot allow another year of population growth without a tragedy to some human, now this is the plain and simple truth as supported by; “ABBA” Actual Black Bear Activity.
Mike D
Yeah, the bears are really vicious. I mean, look at this video. Watch him just rip her head off. This must be what you mean by “reduce the dangers to humans.” Ridiculous.
Thank you Kate for helping us stress the need for a black bear hunt in N.J. Your video clearly indicates that bears are not “adversely-conditioned” to human contact therefore creating opportunties for dangerous human encounters and attacks.
On that day this particular “wild-bear” (and let’s understand the meaning of “wild” living or growing in it’s original, natural state and not normally domesticated or cultivated) decided not to bother with whatever was taking the video with a telephoto lens. On any other given day the result could have been quite different. This is the nature of a wild animal “un-predictable”.
This is much like the recent attacks on humans by supposedly domesticated chimpanzees, “un-predictable” by nature. People dressed them, held their hands walking about and then the chimp just one day decided to rip someone’s face right off their skull.
When black bears are living in their own “non- overpopulated” environment they would never allow a human to get close enough to take pictures or videos.
Now take a close look at this video by some supposed black bear lover, for six minutes and twenty-seven seconds, as indicated on the video, some intrusive black bear paparazzi followed this bear around the woods pushing him from one point to another. Just look at the stress on the bears face and at one point he is near a tree and you can see his mouth opening and closing and his diaphragm moving as he appears to be nervous in deciding what his next move will be. Lucky on this day the bear decided to move on.
We have a video of a black bear passing through the backyard of a development home, the video was taken from the inside of the porch and they were not foolish enough to follow the bear through the woods.
Kate, what you are doing here is dangerous because this video could create a false sense of security allowing some person to get seriously mauled or killed by a black bear. In addition, you are harassing the black bear by following it around with a video camera.
Governor elect Chris Christie made a campaign pledge to endorse a black bear hunt for purposes of bringing the black bear over-population under control. Christie will join (26) other Governors, from (26) states, both democrats and republicans, that fully understand that the safety of their citizens, in matters of wildlife management, should be left to the experts and professional biologists of Fish & Game departments. The well meaning emotions of citizens that can not understand the need for wildlife culling, nor the misleading lies of animal-right/anti-hunting groups should and will not alter his decision.
Christi understands the need to place human rights ahead of animal rights and he is intelligent enough to see through a rather poor illustration of a confused black bear as seen in your home video as any proof that black bears will not hurt humans. In fact, as mentioned above you have shown instead the real need for a hunt to reduce the black bear population.
For anyone watching this video please do not attempt to get this close to a black bear, it is dangerous and not worth the risk.
Mike D
What this video shows is, ironically, a great argument for why we need a bear hunt! It demonstrates why a “little” bit of knowledge about bear behavior can be very dangerous. The videographer intrudes into the bears “space” until it begins showing signs of agitation. She is correct in assessing those signs as the bear’s way of indicating that the intruder is too close. But then, instead of backing off as an intelligent student of bear behavior would do, she instead presses forward. This is precisely the type of HUMAN behavior around habituated bears that eventually gets someone hurt or killed.
As long as northern NJ has an unnaturally dense bear population, the problems will continue. Its pretty clear though that it is a “people” problem not a bear problem!
Having a properly managed bear hunt could go a long way toward reducing the bear population to a point where they could live off natural foods and stay more removed from the “dense” (in more ways than one…) human population.
The radical anti-hunters and animal rights advocates apparently will never admit this, but it is time to stop the incessant political bickering and get on with a hunt. Hopefully Christie will keep his campaign promise of allowing the state’s biologists and the Council to put a hunt in place.
My guess is that the REAL reason that the fringe groups oppose the hunt so strongly, is that even they realize that it WILL serve to reduce human/bear interactions.
Pete thank you for taking the time to review my website and reply to the recent comments from a “Kate”. As I stated in my response to Kate and you have responded as well, this attempt to mislead the public was a careless, dangerous stunt. This type of non-sense can lead to someone being seriously mauled or killed by a black bear. This also backfired on Kate because it clearly demonstrates that black bears are not adversely habituated to human contact because they are overpopulated and accustomed to humans. They have no fear and until the population is reduced with the hunting in itself providing the “best” adverse conditioning we have a “RED-ALERT” dangerous situation.
People like this Kate and whoever took the video are adding to this danger.
The black bear hunt is the solution with annual hunts to keep the population in check. To make this clear, this is not trophy hunting, this is proven, successful “wild game management”. Once again (26) other states have accomblished this goal through hunting, lets put N.J. in the win column here before we become the losers again and the loss will be “PUBLIC SAFETY”.
Mike D
This Video is Scary to think it is on Youtube showing children that a bear is timid.. this Past weekend in a Campsite in Rockaway Twp, NJ My Boy Scouts, well versed and educated in bears due to the areas we camp, were chased out of thier campsite By four bears… Seemed to be a Sow and two cubs and a Boar.. the sow and cubs came in first.. going through the campsite methodically searching for scraps of food.. and then the Boar came in and a agressive interaction took place with the sow and the boar.. right in the middle of the campsite… I have been in scouting for years in this Literally same campground.. since I was 8 years old.. Not only did We NEVER see a bear when I was a child… bearly saw a deer either.. through proper conservation and management, I see Deer and Bear EVERY camping trip. but the amount of bear contact has been getting so frequent and the blatent disregard for humans being around this campground will not be safe till this population has been managed…
using the comparison to the Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge’s Deer hunt… The protestors used to Line the Roads in and out of the Refuge harrassing the hunters. If anyone knew the conditions of these animals they were so over-populated that police reports would be these tiny little deer dieing on the roadside sickly. weight in the 50-60 pounds for a 3-4 year old deer. Now a hunt for managment purposes was instituted… the Deer Population has lessened the Deer are MOnstrous and Healthy, The Most beautiful deer in the STATE by far… and the protestors even reccognized that this hunt was good.. maybe because the FEederal Government ran it.. (doubt that) it proved itself and the same goes for this Bear hunt.. do we need to wait for the bear population to be dieing off before we start to manage it and Save the bear and the people around them..
Left winger and right wingers…
“Can’t We Just get Along?” Rodney King
Biologists are Scientists.. they are looking out for everyone, Except the Politicians…
Rodney Pierce
Thank you Rodney for the excellent input and thoughts. Just hoping that our new Governor will stay with his campaign committment to allow a black bear hunt and bring this black bear overpopulation under control.
Mike D
It is absolutely amazing how you can watch a video of a completely docile bear and turn it around as justification for a bear hunt. This video shows exactly the opposite, the woman doing the video tapeing was extremely careless, a bear should absolutely never be approached and especially never taunted. It’s all about respect and education. But it does show just how docile most bear are and how shy they are toward people. Looks like you guys are really grasping at straws if you really think that the video is justification for a hunt. You guys will do anything to get that big prize.
Hi Dave, thank you for reading and responding to the oped.
When you refer to “you-guys” that tells me you are not understanding that there are now millions of New Jersey “non-hunting” residents that are in favor of “hunting” as a wildlife, population management tool.
The “big prize” is in reducing the black bear population to a number that does allow the safe co-existence with humans, that stops the killing of domestic pets and livestock and that allows tax paying property owners, mothers and children, to enjoy the safety of their own property.
Nothing written by me is simply for “justifying” a hunt, it is plain common sense that wildlife populations, the black bear in particular, cannot just be left to grow to an uncontrolled number in a state with limited open space.
This video does nothing but show how an anti-hunter is just a big nuisance to the bear and on this day it showed aggravation rather than aggression.
Mike D
Hey Mike D.
Just added 9 more pages to website
Have fun posting counter responses.
Hey NNJBA, Happy New Year and likewise on the postings especially yours that allow others to see the need for the black bear “overpopulation” through both positive and negative input. Yours being “negative” toward the hunt of course.
Mike D
I just find it so interesting she knows so Much about Bears.. she don’t even know that bears sex.. secondly let Her trap that bear into a corner… and I wonder if she was cited and arrested for harressing wildlife…
and as record the Star Ledger( a big democrat supporter) poll had New Jerseyans 2 to 1 for the hunt…
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