NJ's National News
26/06/07 11:08 Filed in: NJ Bear
Issue
As the reports of
bear/human encounters continue to rise across the
country, it is becoming apparent - at least to
everyone except politicians who see animal rights
groups as an open wallet - that something is terribly
wrong with non-injurious wildlife management. With
only one death attributed to bear encounters,
opponents of hunting as a management technique are
saying the whole matter is blown out of proportion by
hunting groups.
That is an effective debate technique, but it hardly holds water for the residents of areas who have seen their pets and livestock killed or injured, neighborhoods vandalized and have to worry about running into a three hundred pound - plus forager when they round the corner of their garage. While there may be any one of a number of reasons, the facts of the matter remain: people and bears are running into each other in increasingly higher numbers. Statistically, the odds of being killed or injured by a bear are still pretty small, but that's small consolation to the parents of eleven year-old Sam Ives of Utah who was pulled from his tent and killed by what authorities now say was a "normal" black bear that suddenly turned aggressive.
That is an effective debate technique, but it hardly holds water for the residents of areas who have seen their pets and livestock killed or injured, neighborhoods vandalized and have to worry about running into a three hundred pound - plus forager when they round the corner of their garage. While there may be any one of a number of reasons, the facts of the matter remain: people and bears are running into each other in increasingly higher numbers. Statistically, the odds of being killed or injured by a bear are still pretty small, but that's small consolation to the parents of eleven year-old Sam Ives of Utah who was pulled from his tent and killed by what authorities now say was a "normal" black bear that suddenly turned aggressive.
Experts have warned
that there will be more incidents, and say
legislators in those areas with bear problems are
playing the equivalent of Russian roulette with their
constituents. From April 30 to May 30, for example,
New Jersey's Department of Environmental Protection
reported 279 calls about bears - an increase of more
than 100 incidents from the same period last year.
Not coincidentally, New Jersey's governor and the
commissioner of environmental protection have used
political tactics to prevent the bear hunt in New
Jersey that has been a part of the state's wildlife
management plan.
That battle continues a three-decade long fight between politicians and wildlife managers. After three decades of not hunting bears, the state allowed a single-week hunting season in 2003 and again in 2005. Another was scheduled for last year, but was called off by a DEP commissioner who said there was not enough science to support a hunt. Both Commissioner Lisa Jackson and Governor John Corzine have vocally opposed the hunt.
Hopefully, officials say, a decision on the legality of the proposed bear hunt and who has authority over it will be decided by the New Jersey Supreme Court before the end of the year.
In the meantime, DEP officials have killed several "problem" bears this year - including three in a single community.
And it appears the non-lethal approach isn't working. Reports of vandals either damaging non-lethal bear traps across the state seem to point toward the work of animal-rights protesters, although authorities are not labeling it the work of animal rights advocates. Several have had to be relocated as they were "heavily scented" with human urine to keep bears away. Others have had their trapdoors closed - repeatedly - to the point they, too, had to be relocated.
In the case of New Jersey, it appears the bears have several advantages, from the political clout of deep-pocketed animal rights organizations to the activities of anti-hunting protesters who would, it seems, prefer to see humans injured instead of bears.
--Jim Shepherd the shooting wire jJune 26, 2007
That battle continues a three-decade long fight between politicians and wildlife managers. After three decades of not hunting bears, the state allowed a single-week hunting season in 2003 and again in 2005. Another was scheduled for last year, but was called off by a DEP commissioner who said there was not enough science to support a hunt. Both Commissioner Lisa Jackson and Governor John Corzine have vocally opposed the hunt.
Hopefully, officials say, a decision on the legality of the proposed bear hunt and who has authority over it will be decided by the New Jersey Supreme Court before the end of the year.
In the meantime, DEP officials have killed several "problem" bears this year - including three in a single community.
And it appears the non-lethal approach isn't working. Reports of vandals either damaging non-lethal bear traps across the state seem to point toward the work of animal-rights protesters, although authorities are not labeling it the work of animal rights advocates. Several have had to be relocated as they were "heavily scented" with human urine to keep bears away. Others have had their trapdoors closed - repeatedly - to the point they, too, had to be relocated.
In the case of New Jersey, it appears the bears have several advantages, from the political clout of deep-pocketed animal rights organizations to the activities of anti-hunting protesters who would, it seems, prefer to see humans injured instead of bears.
--Jim Shepherd the shooting wire jJune 26, 2007
