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Animal Rights, Environmental Groups Join Effort To Stop Bear Hunt
September 28, 2015
Eleven Florida and national animal-protection and environmental groups jointly filed a “friend of the court” brief Friday that sides with a Seminole County organization seeking to block the state’s upcoming bear-hunting season.
Leon County Circuit Judge George Reynolds III on October 1 will hear a legal challenge by Speak Up Wekiva to the hunt, which was approved by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
The season is scheduled to begin October 24 and last two to seven days. It is the first bear hunt in the state in more than two decades. The state agency’s goal is to reduce the bear population in Florida by 320.
As of Friday morning, 2,279 bear hunting permits had been purchased.
The groups backing Speak Up Wekiva were the Animal Legal Defense Fund, Animal Hero Kids, the Animal Rights Foundation of Florida,the Animal Welfare Institute, the Center for Biological Diversity, CompassionWorks International, Environmental Action, the Jungle Friends Primate Sanctuary, Lobby for Animals, the South Florida Wildlands Association and Stop the Florida Bear Hunt.
by The News Service of Florida
Comments
21 Responses to “Animal Rights, Environmental Groups Join Effort To Stop Bear Hunt”
Hunters do not pay the majority for the conservation of land and the programs to increase the wildlife, the non-hunters do. Don’t let some lame hunter feed you their kool-aid. The FWC is a hunt club for hunters. They are not working to save wildlife. Their version of the word “conservation” is not the non-hunters version, which is to save, preserve, and not abuse. They have twisted words to help them find favor with those who are not in the know. Words like “harvest” for killing. Conservation for “hunting.” They have been groomed by hunters, the Safari Club International and the NRA for years and now are hard at work to get the panther from the federal responsibility to them so they can can kill them. Panthers are their next target people. Ranch owners do not like predators and two ranch owners sit on the board of commissioners. Most all are hunters, and some are land developers, all with a stake in not have predators on lands. Read up on this and get educated. Join a FB group like Stop the Bear Hunt. Get active. Join the forces. It will take everyone to fight the years of damage that has been done and the thick wall of power behind it.
I am most satisfied with my displacement, killing a thousand bears will not increase such.
You would be better off riding around the woods getting sloshed drunk on your Polaris.
As a former environmental science teacher, I can say the Pensacola ED is absolutely correct. If overpopulations of certain animals aren’t taken care of, the resulting damage to the species can actually lead to it’s being endangered. The number of animals the land can support needs to be managed with good stewardship.
well lets think about this for a moment. I like bears but if they do what comes naturally (breeding) and over breed then they are at risk for being hunted, trapped,stalked by humans who can call it a sport and actually enjoy the act of cruelty, but can easily confirm their actions by turning it around and making it look like a blessing to the bear. thats a very dark picture of human behavior.
For those of you “armchair” quarterbacks, who sit in your living rooms and condemn hunters and hunting, I happen to hunt in one of the areas where the bears are overpopulated (Ocala National Forest). The bears have NO fear of humans, strolling through the campsites in broad daylight, and not running away. I had a 250 pound bear charge me 3 years ago, this bear had ZERO fear of humans, and that’s a recipe for disaster.
The best thing in the world for the overall health of the bears is to thin their numbers, so they have more territory each, and re-instill their natural fear of humans, to prevent dangerous encounters.
Haley, you DO know that the numbers of every big game animal are at or near record high levels, specifically because of the benefits of regulated hunting.?Who do you think pays to relocate elk to Eastern States like Kentucky and Arkansas, where elk haven’t ranged for 200 years? Or to provide habitat for quail, turkeys and deer? Just because you don’t like to hunt, and remain uneducated on the benefits of hunting, doesn’t mean that we are all rednecks. If hunters didn’t thin the herds of prey animals. like deer, they would overpopulate their habitat (land can only support so many animals per acre), and ALL the animals would suffer, from nasty conditions like starvation, malnutrition and disease.
The real world is NOT like Disney, where everything is rainbows and unicorns.
I just hope these groups that are attempting to stop this ridiculous bunch who want to go out and kill these bears are successful. Mankind has done enough to destroy and eliminate so much wild-life in the name of thinning out the over-population of bears, deer, etc. The “thrill of the hunt” for the rednecks.
In this area, we’ve got squirrel overload. Lots of the little tree rats gettin smushed in the road. Sometimes I have 6 or more in one tree eating pine cones and acorns. They’re saving me a ton on cat food. My cat eats 3 or 4 a week.
Hunter, with your thought of going to feed the bears in the woods. I see the problem with that is the same as c humming by surfers.
@BobsBrother..are you kidding? Bears have been attacking people, dogs and ruining things for a long time. the same can be said for people. prisons are full of em.
I hope they are able to stop the bear hunt. More people have registered to hunt them than allowed. I do believe they are an endangered species.
All ya’ll bear lovers need to go into the woods, find you a nice friendly bear and feed it. Report back after you do it.
@Winney… Why are you against a thinning of an over populated animal? Bears have been attacking people, dogs, and ruining things for too long. We also have an over population of whitetail deer in the South. Evidence of this is seen daily with all the dead deer on the sides of roads hit by cars and trucks. They do millions in damage to crops and vehicles and they need to be thinned out. We need to kill them and eat them.
The problem is man…not beast. We breed like rats and destroy all we touch. Praying one day we can return to the time when all actually understood “all my relations”.
All you people crying about this hunt need to realize that hunting is an effective, and valuable tool for wildlife management. Regulated hunting is responsible for the stable populations of game animals like deer, turkeys and elk, that were once near being endangered. If you really want to help wildlife, instead of crying onto your Birkenstocks, you should go out and purchase a Hunting License. The money generated will do a hell of a lot more good than whatever you might think you are doing to help wildlife now. Hunting license fees, and the Fees collected through the Pittmann Robertson Act go directly to wildlife habitat preservation, and other conservation methods.
As for why did they issue over 2,000 licenses, that’s because not everyone will kill a bear the first day or two, some people won’t even hunt. After the second day, you are required to call in each day to determine if the quote for your area has been met.
Bear hunting is currently practiced in many other states, and the numbers of bears in those states is stable or growing.
Hunting and stalking bears or any animal beings is a cruel premitive sporting method for population control. Why in the world cant we produce enough bears thur population control in a more humane and controlled manner. Shooting ..hunting..trapping methods are cruel and only teaches the next generation a disrespect for other beings we share the universe with.
I am amazed and devastated that my beautiful state, my home, my pride is undertaking to encourage and facilitate the wholesale slaughter of treasured wildlife. Sadly, more development and the increasing human population is the reason that an proteced species is going to be being killed by several hundred to over 1000. The “thrill of the hunt” for the approximately 2000 hunters, who will bag their bear reminds me of Cecil the lion. Shame on you Florida FWC Director Nick Wiley. Having just watched the video on
http://myfwc.com/bear where coexistence is stressed and where in 2009, it was a 3rd degree felony to kill a Florida Black Bear, what happened?
If they only need to be reduced by 320, why not issue only 320 licenses. Why issue over 2,000?
Meat is murder!
Tasty, tasty murder.
How would we replace the bears if an overkill happens on the first day? How many will be killed and left because the hunter wants a bigger one,it will happen.
If you use “The Great Smoky Mountains National Park” as an example their are estimated 2 black bear per square mile, and they are protected by the National Park Service, and they have bear attacks all the time, their must be a point when public safety and common sense should be a factor, or is common sense actually more uncommon than we tend to.realize!!