The Bear Education and Resource Group has paid for a half page ad in the Daily Record, Morris County, N.J. stating among other things that:

“The Division of Fish & Wildlife (DFW) is the blame, breaking the law by refusing to enforce the feeding ban.”

“The DFW refuses to enforce proper garbage storage laws and instead of ticketing property owners, they “allow” bears to be lured into human environments by the smell of garbage and there they kill them-using these incidents to justify bear hunting.

“DFW “solely” exists to manage sport hunting.

“Non-lethal bear management (ex: garbage control) is the only proven way to manage black bears.

At the bottom of this ad, of course, there is a form for making a donation of; $25.00 to $500.00.

 This is an outright SLANDER of DFW proven, professionals.

 The only reason The Bear Group and other anti-hunting/animal right groups have existed for these past years in N.J. are some past Governors and politicians that were afraid to take a chance with “voters” by supporting and endorsing the DFW and their professional, experienced members that have the responsibility of managing “wildlife” in New Jersey.

Now after an all out attack on Chris Christi to prevent him from defeating Governor Corzine, their “Stop the hunt Godfather”, they realize that “Governor Christi” is not going to play “politics” with “black bear overpopulation”, the Governor made it clear “prior” to being elected; BLACK BEAR HUNT? YES.

SO WHAT IS THE TRUTH?????

The Bear Group is nothing more than an inexperienced clan of misleading individuals that attempt to use emotions to play on the “emotions” of innocent animal-lovers, duping them out of money to sustain a meaningless cause.

For all of the past years, 2000 through 2010, The Bear Group has published nothing but ‘GARBAGE”, because garbage has absolutely nothing to do with OVERPOPULATION or managing “the increase in the N.J. black bear population”. Garbage containment is important for more than black bear issues, it can become a health issue when left for rats, birds, stray dogs, etc.; but to solve black bear overpopulation now and in the future; NOT 

As for the information the Bear Group  lays claim to, garbage containment , how to live with the black bear, adverse conditioning, this has been made available for years by the New Jersey Division of Fish & Wildlife in handouts and on their website.

The half-page article the bear group placed in the Daily Record, Morris County on 3/14/10, is not only an outright lie, it is a “slanderous” attack on  the qualified, professional New Jersey Division of Fish & Wildlife and Fish & Game Council and on the DFW agencies throughout the U.S. in every state and the governing bodies they fall under.

These dedicated departments and individuals do not deserve to be portrayed as they were in this unfair article and one would certainly hope that we are much smarter than to buy into the bear group “bull.”

I have written numerous articles successfully rebuking the mind-twisting lies that the bear group has published over the years, but now they have gone over the line with this ill-considered add.

You can easily evaluate the NJDF&W and the scientific work of their professionals, just logon to:

http://www.state.nj.us/dep/fgw/bearpolicy10.htm

If you “really” want to make a comparison between the inexperienced rambling of the Bear Group and the NJDF&W that they attempted to slander, then take the time to review the “Comprehensive Black Bear Management Policy” recently submitted to the DEP. Forty-five (45) pages of real scientific information backed up with accurate facts and figures. Oh, for sure the bear group will attempt to have you dismiss this report by using their same old “garbage” spin.

This report however, will easily show that the DFW is the only reliable source that should be responsible for managing wildlife. These professionals cannot allow emotions to interfere with science. They have proof to back up there management policies and they have the ONLY proven track record of “savinbears”; they actually DID, how? we had a black bear population in the 1970’s that was in danger of extinction, it was the DFW professionals that saved them, brought them back.

Do we want to maintain a healthy black bear population?  

Do we want to prevent the black bear from threatening human life?

Do we want to stop the killing of domestic pets and livestock?

The only way this can be accomplished is to allow our professional DFW to manage wildlife again, manage the black bear population not manage attacks on their creditability. There responsibilities include the regulation and protection of fish and game for both recreational (hunting and fishing for sport and food) and commercial purposes. Recreational activities include; micro- management of wildlife populations, designating endangered species for protection, scientific research in areas like black bear issues, disease,  non-hunting recreational opportunities like sight seeing, hiking, horseback riding, bird watching, management of state and  park lands including lakes, ponds and streams.

Just to set the record straight regarding salaries; The Fish and Game Council, that have the role of managing the states fish and wildlife resources, function as “UNPAID VOLUNTEERS” in coordination with the Commissioner and Director of DEP , NJDF&W.

A black bear hunt is now five (5) years overdue you cannot manage wildlife without experience but you can use “COMMON-SENSE” to understand that “any wildlife population cannot be left “uncontrolled” and to simply grow to whatever numbers they reach.

We do not have adequate forestland to support the current black bear population, we cannot make new forestland, and garbage control, important yes but garbage control is not population control and will not reduce black bear overpopulation, we need to implement hunting as an integral part of black bear population control and maintenance.

We should not overlook the right of sportsmen to pursue the legal right to hunt. We find hunters, in New Jersey coming under constant criticism; here again groups like the bear group and others have portrayed hunters as blood thirsty, trophy hunting slobs.

Hunting is one of the oldest activities of our planet, all through the different eras hunting has had a meaningful purpose. In the beginning it was all about food, later the raising of livestock placed hunting into an optional pastime where hunters could take to the woods to rekindle the heritage of hunting while still opting for the harvesting of their own food.

Today, hunting serves as a sport, family recreation, economic opportunities for many states, the only opportunity one has to harvest healthy, natural, non-hormone free food and! and! and! at the same time carry out the culling of wildlife to meet designated goals established by  the professional wildlife biologists  and proven members of the DF&W as deemed necessary for maintaining healthy game populations.

Remember, there is no successful sterilization method, birth control or any other option to hunting now or in our near future except; companies that come into a state or town and charge anywhere from $300.00 to $1000.00, per animal to reduce the population; is this not hunting? hunting where instead of picking up revenue from licensed hunters we pay for hunters to do the same work.

Therefore, until science produces a “pill” that can be taken to satisfy the daily nourishment requirements of meat, as chosen for food by 97% of our people, animals’ both wild and domestic, are here to meet our needs. How? well! the supermarket where someone does the work for us and it can be picked up already prepared to cook and eat or the hunt for those that wish to do it all on their own. In the USA we have the freedom to make the choice between the two.

Lastly; A message for Governor Christi and DEP Commissioner Bob Martin; on behalf of millions of non-hunting citizens that support hunting and the hunters that must carry out the task, for those of us that supported you because of your honesty and desire to take New Jersey to a new level in all areas, many far more important than a black bear hunt, we ask that you continue your support of our state DFW and that support should include allowing DFW to move ahead with black bear hunts and to put in place a fee for bear hunting, this is what every state in the U.S does.

The support should include preventing any emotional, inexperienced group to tie up our courts and waste taxpayers money with frivolous lawsuits aimed at delaying the process. These groups poke and hope at ways of keeping this an emotional issue and have done so under past Governors.

There should be some  statement made from your offices that clearly dismisses the ad that was published by the bear group on 3/14/10, because this is not only a slanderous attack on the DFW, but on your administration as well. It is a misleading lie that is aimed at innocent, emotional people. The DFW must be defended as you would do for any worker subjected to unfounded accusations.

A black bear hunt in inevitable, the black bears have proven on their own that they are too many , they show no fear of humans and will continue to be a threat to humans as they break into houses, garages and vehicles to damage and destroy property,  attack injure and kill domestic pets and livestock and continue to jeopardize human safety,  until one day they finally seriously injure or fatally attack a human. Scare tactic; no, just the writing on the wall..

Mike D 

 

Since 2000 the New Jersey Black Bears have made their presence know through disrupting the “safety-zone of balance” required for co-existence with the human population.

At the same time animal-rights and anti-hunting groups saw an opportunity to prey on the weak political system in New Jersey through Governor Whitman. These groups created some illusion that “pardons” for intrusive black bear behavior should replace the New Jersey Division of Fish and Wildlife biologists, professional conclusion that black bear hunts should take place in order to reduce the overpopulation and maintain a “safe co-existing” level. Keep in mind these are the same professionals that successfully brought the black bear population to an acceptable number from the lows of the 1970’s.

It is interesting to note that many of these animal-right/anti-hunting groups do not even reside in New Jersey or at least live near black bear country.

In addition to attacking the F&W, these groups obviously set out against hunting and hunters. The first line of attacks came in the form of “Hunters are simply looking to put Trophy’s on their walls”. By alluding to trophy hunting they hoped and in fact did solicit support from animal lovers. The black bear was portrayed as this helpless animal (mammal actually) that was being targeted by blood thirsty hunters and being offered for slaughter by money hungry Fish&Game members and biologists.

Within this “blame-base” the anti’s offered garbage (you can take that comment both ways) as another pardon excuse.

Well garbage was a problem but this became a problem when the black bear population exceeded its natural carrying habitant and the overflow began to roam into previously unexplored territories.

For added “pardon-symphony” the anti’s cited “land development”. Here again, we should pardon the black bear and put the blame on human population growth, both new families and senior citizens with a need for housing. Of course, we have those “transferred-rural-tree hugging homeys” that believe once they move to the country everyone else should stay away. Why, if you don’t want the black bear killing your pets, domestic animals, breaking into your garages and houses, attacking and threatening humans, disrupting human rights and freedom, “get-out-of-town”. Sound familiar? It is like the old Westerns, “howdy partner why this town isn’t big enough for the both of us move out or draw.”

 

Well just look at these latest statistics:

July 21, 2008 to August 20, 2008 the state black bear unit received (437) bear calls compared to (185) for the same period in 2007

 

Fifty (50) calls were Category 1, (247) calls were Category 11, (140) calls were Category 111 in the time period 2008 as noted above

 

Twelve (12) calls were Category 1, (101) calls were Category 11, (72) calls were Category 111 in the time period 2007 as noted above.

 

From January 1, 2008 through August 20, 2008 a total of (1821) bear calls were received as compared to (1037) for the same time period in 2007.

 

The black bear unit in total received from January 1, 2008 through August 20, 2008; (169) Category 1 calls, (1015) Category 11 calls, and (637) Category 11 calls

For the same time period 2007 the calls were; (75) Category 1 calls, (543) Category 11 calls, (419) Category 111 calls.

 

Eighteen (18) bears were euthanized in 2008 as compared to (13) in 2007.

·        Category 1: Behavior includes; human attacks, home entries, attempted home entries, agricultural crop damage and killing livestock or pets.

·        Category 11: Behavior includes; nuisance bears are  habitual visitors’ to dumpsters or birdfeeders and property damage less than $500.00

·        Category 111 : Behavior includes; wandering into populated areas, passing through rural and suburban neighborhoods, bears observed by hikers, hunters, campers and others using facilities in black bear habitant

 

All of this activity, basically “criminal-activity” and last week we have the NJSPCA filing charges against a Jefferson woman, on behalf of the black bear no-less, because her dog chased, caught and killed a small black bear that trespassed on her property. Just imagine and think real hard about this, they want to put a human being, a woman, in jail because her dog killed a “wild-trespassing” animal that is destroying domestic pets, livestock and property.

Look at it this way if this non-sense does not stop, if the court does not throw this ridicules case out of court, anyone, your own family and/or friends that own a dog could end up with fines and jail if that dog happens to defend it’s property and attacks a trespassing, “wild-bear”.

On the other hand, if the black bear succeeds in killing your domestic pet there is no legal recourse for you (0), nothing.

We have wasted time and taxpayers money on this issue since 2000; New Jersey State Supreme hearings, Governor’s, DEP Commissioners,  Judges of local courts everyone involved in a decision making process that belongs to the professional F&G and biologists that are experienced and  paid to make these decisions.

This is totally out of control, non-experienced people, politicians or others should not be allowed to interfere with professionals. No, we do not need inexperienced people on the Fish & Game Council; we do not need animal-rights/anti-hunters determining the process for managing wild game.

 

Lastly, hunter or not we do not need to question the legal right a citizen has to harvest and process and consume their own food. It is the balance of hunting and game management that brings about a safe co-existence with wild animals all through America, except New Jersey, “Pardon Us but no more Black Bear Pardons.” Governor Corzine inherited this problem write him and tell him it is OK to pass the buck to Fish&Game.

Mike D

 

 

 

 

 

I am an “omnivore” and my diet includes plants, meat, insects, bee’s wasps, yellow jackets and honey. I also like skunk cabbage, horsetail, tree bark and acorns. If I want I will dine on, small mammals, like rodents, Whitetail fawns, Elk or Moose calves, I vary my diet with salmon, suckers, crayfish and trout. For desert, apples, cherries, pears, peaches and plums will do. 

I am the “APEX” predator in North America and with the exception of Grizzly (Brown Bear) no other animal/mammal can touch me.

I prefer to “live” in forested and shrubby areas but I often like ridge tops, tidelands, burned areas, riparian areas, agricultural field’s hardwood and conifer swamps.

I usually, “hibernate” in the winter in hollowed-out dens, tree cavities’, under logs or rocks, caves, culverts and shallow depressions. Since my body temperature does not significantly drop during the winter, here’s a little secret; I never really totally sleep and remain somewhat alert and in fact active. I am some what exhausted from an active breeding summer and following food frenzy to prepare for the winter.

In the spring I come fully out of this “hibernated-state” and begin feeding all over again, feeding and getting ready for another “breeding-run” of course in New Jersey, where we have some sort of reproduction madness, competition is not like it used to be, all of those Ma Ma bears running around, 3-5 cubs to look after and still every two years, here we go again. Love it as once those female cubs reach 3-4 years old, “watch-out”.

I enjoy breeding or act thereof; in this area I guess I most resemble the Human Species’. In fact, those humans got the “rabbit-habit” and are spreading out all over my natural habitant.

Now I have a real problem here, at one time I feared the poachers, and then Fish &Wildlife stepped in to set traps and catch them. I was also worried about hunters but for the most part the Fish & Wildlife stepped in again and stopped hunting until we caught back up with a population that allowed us to remain where we wanted to be, back in the forests out of sight, out of mind.

But those humans, here in New Jersey, why they just kept it up, if you know what I mean. They reproduced more than us, and then started to move into my country, OH, many of them lived here for years, generations of them, but they had farms and large plots of property and we were less, they were less so, well, we “safely-co-existed”. Live and let live.

To make matters worst some of us bears started getting a little nosey and ventured into these new developments, at first it was scary because we knew that the human was the “APEX” when it came to us, but for some reason as we encountered them something strange happened, they moved away from us, heck they looked plain scared.

So we started to roam around a little more and on certain nights the raccoons told us you could find a good “leftover” meal in some large pail that the humans put outside. Now I would admit that this certainly wasn’t better than a good old fashioned, home grown skunk cabbage patch, bee hive or small fresh animal/mammal, but with many of us now crowded out of those food sources’, well it is better than starving.

Some of us even realized that domestic livestock, was no longer protected and that pets were an easy prey as well. So we moved in on them too.

 

In some areas it was pretty cool, why people, some tribes called, “anti-hunting/animal-right, tree huggers” even snuck us food in their backyards and all we had to do was look cute and let them snap a few pictures. We even got creative and sat on their children’s swing sets, laid in their hammocks; we used their swimming pools.

As Murphy’s’ law would have it just when we were bragging about our new found life some wise ass decided they had enough. The humans actually got mad because they had to pick-up their garbage from all over the place, so they put it in some silly looking yellow pails with large handles on top. Let me tell you, we could drag these away and irrigate them with tooth holes, but why bother? We just watched those houses with the silly yellow pails and found where they stored garbage before the “out-night”. Most put it in sheds or garages. Well, they didn’t realize that in addition to our jaws and teeth we have some “guns” in our legs, enough to rip open any shed or garage and that we did.

Others’ of us decided that domestic livestock and pets were in large supply and easier than some garbage to get. So we went heavy there as well.

Some humans decided to get in our way, maybe on purpose, maybe by accident, no matter we swiped a few, bit a few and some of our more rogue members well, they went further.

Back in 2003 we were surprised that when we encountered humans, during the month of December, we were being shot at and taken. They weren’t scared of us and their “smoke-sticks” carried powerful medicine, man we made way back to the forests a few less but actually we had more room now. In 2004, we were a little timid again but for some reason the humans were passive again, so we went back to our old ways trying to make up for those lost opportunities. I guess we went a little too far, because in December of 2005, the “smoke-sticks” were out again and again we retreated. Thankfully, those dumb humans came after us in December, in the cold and snow where many of us were already in partial hibernation.

We were a little wary in the beginning of 2006 but we soon realized that we were OK again, in 2007 we stepped it up a little more and so far in 2008 we are going bonkers. Heck; we are multiplying to numbers where nothing will stop us and any human getting in our way, we will take out. That goes for adults any age and especially kids, because unlike us two, three year young humans don’t have the smarts to cope with us. Maybe we were timid and shy once but for now our attitude is aggressive and dangerous.

One of our seniors picked out some oil soaked newspaper from the garbage, a relative of “ Smokey Bear” was he, who was able to read the news that our allies, the anti-hunting/animal-right party had somehow succeeded in convincing the “vote-minded” liberal politicians in New Jersey that we should be left alone, not to worry about us hurting anybody. That a few domestic animals, breaking into garages and houses and roughing up or worse on a few humans was no big deal. Listen to this; these groups even convinced the Governor’s office and DEP that we could just be left alone to multiply year after year and here’s the kicker; we can “safely-co-exist”. OK

  The only thing humans have to be made to do is give up:

·        freedom of their own, tax paid for, backyards and private property

·        look over your shoulder on any public parkland

·        take down bird feeders

·        give up backyard barbecues’

·        don’t cook with open windows

·        don’t leave fresh baked pies, cookies, etc in “your own” kitchen

·        take your kids to the bus stops, without peanut butter and jelly lunches

·        consider your domestic livestock and pets as expendable

·        dig up fruit and nut trees

·        pray every night that you do not get in our way 

·        learn that a wild bears’ life, is more important than human life

 

As Ray’s father the late actor Peter Boyle would say; “Holy Crap is that All”

 

Some mention was made of bringing back the hunting season and our allies countered with “sterilization”, to tell you the truth, they will never catch enough of us to sterilize and doubt if any chemical they use will work, we have a pretty strong constitution on breeding; we love it, DON’T MESS WITH THAT OR YOU MIGHT REALLY FIND SOME ANGRY BEARS.

We would go as far as saying when it comes to sterilization versus hunting, we bears “Support Hunting”. It’s a win, win for us. First you have to catch us, oh, it might be easy at first because dang-it, there are a few too many of us right now. But once we get thinned out a little and can get back to our own natural habitant, you will see how our shy and timid personality of the past takes over and makes us quite elusive.

Frankly speaking, we are tired of being relegated to the human “open-zoo” environment.

The human population triggered off this problem, developers made it worse, then the anti-hunter/animal-right, tree hugging photographers added to the problem.

All species have predators’, disease, accidents whatever this is life it will never change, Support, your wildlife biologists, Fish and Game and Black Bear hunting, it is part of life. Contact Governor Corzine and DEP Commissioner Lisa Jackson let them see that the “real-majority” supports a controlled hunt.

Please Tree-Huggers no more help your lies are killing us more than the smoke sticks will.

 

Mike D