It’s going to quickly be open season on bears in Florida once more.
Regardless of surveys exhibiting overwhelming opposition, wildlife officers have tentatively permitted a three-week bear “harvest” in December. Will probably be the primary bear hunt in a decade.
The said aim of the Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Fee is to take away 187 bears from an estimated state inhabitants of 4,000.
In components of Florida, bear sightings have grow to be more and more frequent because the majestic, curious and solitary animals forage for meals in yard rubbish cans. However killing so a lot of them as a method of inhabitants management is barbaric.
Lots of attended an emotional listening to in Ocala Wednesday the place approval appeared a foregone conclusion. So many confirmed up that they had been restricted to 1 minute every, after which the board silenced their microphones.
A state-sanctioned ‘slaughter’
Hunters endorsed the hunt as a accountable strategy to handle a bear overpopulation, whereas opponents criticized the spectacle as a “trophy hunt.”
“This isn’t conservation. That is state-sanctioned slaughter,” stated opponent Chris Teodorski of Wesley Chapel.
“Feelings don’t drive wildlife coverage. Science does,” stated supporter Travis Thompson of All Florida, a conservation group. “It’s time for a bear hunt.”
The five-member Fish & Wildlife board favors the usage of bear-tracking canine and bait stations to lure them, strategies prohibited the final time.
The 2015 hunt grew to become a debacle. It was scheduled to final per week, however the state unexpectedly shut it down after two days when practically 300 bears had been killed, near the utmost allowed.
On the subsequent hunt, the state can even permit bows and arrows, elevating the specter of bears struggling lingering and painful deaths.
No safety for cubs
Worse, hunters won’t be required to carry bear carcasses to checkpoints, making it potential and maybe seemingly that killing feminine bears with cubs won’t be detected.
That will doom two or three bears, not only one, however the cubs’ deaths won’t ever be counted.
That is one thing that almost all Floridians vehemently don’t want. Greater than 75% of public feedback obtained earlier than Wednesday’s assembly had been damaging, the FWC stated.
The subsequent hunt relies on bear inhabitants numbers that in some circumstances are a minimum of 10 years outdated.
It’s tough to just accept the wildlife employees’s declare that the hunt will end in “no internet loss” of Florida’s bear inhabitants and it nearly definitely won’t do something to cut back the variety of encounters between people and bears.
Yr after 12 months, builders throughout the state convert extra of the bears’ pure habitat into manicured subdivisions, fast-food eating places and workplace plazas. Bears are operating out of locations.
However there are methods to make sure human security.
In suburban Orlando, Seminole County has lengthy been a bear-encounter scorching spot. However after the county launched an aggressive public marketing campaign to teach residents about securing rubbish containers that appeal to hungry bears with no entry to a pure meals provide, incident reviews plummeted.
‘A win for all Floridians’
However the Fish & Wildlife Fee sees hunters as its pure constituency — not animal lovers.
“The resurgence of the Florida black bear isn’t just a victory for conservationists; it’s a win for all Floridians,” FWC Chairman Rodney Barreto stated. “Searching is a biologically sound methodology to gradual inhabitants development, leading to a wholesome and well-managed Florida black bear inhabitants for the longer term.”
Barreto and his fellow commissioners are far out of step with public opinion on this difficulty.
Florida Channel
Steve Hudson of Fort Lauderdale is a member of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Fee.
The FWC vote was 4-1, and a second and remaining vote is scheduled for August.
The lone dissenter was Steve Hudson, a Fort Lauderdale civic and enterprise chief, who in line with the Information Service of Florida, expressed considerations about non-residents acquiring hunt permits and for permitting individuals to hunt bears at feeding stations.
Hudson’s considerations are justified, in our view.
Florida doesn’t have a bear inhabitants downside as a lot because it has an issue with suburban sprawl and overdevelopment that has violated the bears’ pure habitat.
No bear ought to need to die due to us, however a few of them inevitably will.
The Solar Sentinel Editorial Board consists of Opinion Editor Steve Bousquet, Deputy Opinion Editor Dan Sweeney, editorial writers Pat Beall and Martin Dyckman, and Government Editor Gretchen Day-Bryant. To contact us, e mail at letters@sun-sentinel.com.