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

 

 

 

Apparently Pennsylvania and New York are prepared to issue arrest warrants for black bears that are crossing over to New Jersey because of “food-attractants”. Problem is they are sneaking back and forth without paying road tolls at Dingmans’ Ferry, Delaware Water Gap and New York Thruway. (A joke of course as is the statement below being taken seriously unfortunately)

Do you believe this; apparently Governor Corzine made a statement on NJ Network, a known biased news station that “bears were coming from PA. and N.Y. because of N.J.’S “food-attractants”.

 

So you see as the animal-rights/anti-hunters see every excuse they give to postpone a black bear hunt fall short of truth and fact, they dream up yet another bogus explanation. Unfortunately, Governor Corzine buys into this non-sense in an attempt to refrain from admitting that the decision to postpone or outright ban a black bear hunt was “wrong”.

 

Both PA. and NY have successfully held black bear hunting for decades harvesting anywhere from 2000 to 4000 black bears annually. If it were true that black bears were abandoning those states, other than in isolated cases as New Jersey bears have also visited both PA and NY to no real numbers, then we definitely have a need to reduce our population by hunting.

Why? Because without hunting in these two bordering states can you imagine how many black bears may in fact enter New Jersey.

It is PA that believes New Jersey black bears are crossing over into PA forcing them to increase their own hunting seasons.

 

Janet Piszar, known anti-hunter, was at it again at last Tuesdays’ Fish and Game Council meeting when she showed pictures of dumpsters around Branchville, saying that was the reason we had bear problems, why productive rates are high, because they attract bears.

 

All of this non-sense will continue until the silent-majority floods Governor Corzine’s and DEP Commissioner Lisa Jackson with complaints and demands for a hunt.

 

Here it is in a “nutshell”; the problem came into the limelight in 2000 when the overpopulated black bear showed itself to be intrusive, destructive and dangerous. Governor Whitman yielded to animal-right/anti-hunting pressure and stopped the planned hunt; this inflated the political football now being tossed about.

Conditions worsened until 2003 when it became so obvious that citizens were in danger and a hunt was held. In the following year, 2004, the complaints went down. Yet the anti’s succeeded in keeping this a political issue and the 2004 hunt was cancelled again. In 2005 as complaints rose once more a hunt was passed. In 2006 complaints went down again.

 

 

The New Jersey State Supreme Court ruling in favor of a (5) year black bear management plan to include hunting was challenged in the courts by the anti’s and with the support of a new regime, Governor Corzine and his new DEP Commissioner Lisa Jackson the decision was once again cancelled.

 

We have eight (8) years of history when beginning in 2000 the same emphasis was placed on garbage control, adverse conditioning and sterilization studies were considered. It is over, nothing will solve this problem unless we follow the lead of less political involved states, (26) of them, that allow the qualified experts, Fish and Game and biologists to perform their job assignments.

 

Read this a few times; only in the (2) two years in which we had a hunt did the black bear problems stabilize. Two (2) out of eight (8) years we got it right, proven right. That is all the proof we should need.

 

This is the worst year ever, if we do not hold a hunt this year, next year will be a disaster.

 

Contact the Governor’s office, contact the DEP Commissioner, and do not let the anti-s continue to feed opened armed politicians, these non-sense excuses to delay the only proven method to gain control of this very dangerous threat to human safety.

Mike D

 

 

 

 

 

 

In a recent memo written by an anti-hunting/animal-rights group the following misleading out and out lies were posted:

·        The hunters and F&W create a fear factor to promote a bear hunt.

·        Hunters want the hunt to fuel their passion for killing.

·        Bears are killed by police simply for knocking over trash cans.

·        On “rare occasions” when homes or garages are entered by bears it is classified as a break-in and F&W ignores the real reason that homeowners did not “bear-proof” their property.

·        F&W set what they claim are non-lethal traps then arrive and shoot the bears.

·        F&W inflate the population statistics to enforce the necessity of a hunt.

·        F&W relocate bears to urban areas to incite fear among residents.

 

Let’s go over these points:

 

·        Hunters and F&W do not control the non-hunting public nor the newspapers that follow up with bear complaints and print the real facts as told by the victims. The public is scared as a direct result of overpopulated black bears infringing on their safety.

·        Hunters share a passion for the outdoors and recreation capped off by the legal right to hunt and cull legal wild game for food consumption either by themselves, family, friends or donation to food for the hungry.

·        Police have made every effort to use rubber buckshot to scare bears off for adverse conditioning; they shoot bears that continually demonstrate potential humans’ danger by returning to or breaking into homes and garages.

·        Black bear breaking into homes and garages is no longer a “rare-occasion” as homeowners are securing garbage by storing in shed and garages the black bear is following the scent into the homes and garages where they are now more dangerous than ever.

·        F&W rarely shoots a trapped black bear unless it was trapped exactly for demonstrating aggressive behavior or numerous break-ins.

·        F&W does not inflate statistics and in fact all statistics and reports are under inflated because the public does not report all black bear activity as they find it apparently does not impact the “political-web” that continues to ignore the dangers.

·        F&W relocates bears to urban areas to incite fear; herein lies the proof that these groups are warped people that have no common sense, no respect for human safety and no respect for themselves as they will concoct any story they can to drawn in gullible, innocent people that really have a love for animals, into misleading lies and information to support their cause. 

 

 

 

It is extremely important for the public to understand these facts, to separate the lies of anti-hunters/animal-rights groups from the truth. New Jersey is not unlike (26) other states that have thriving black bear populations. New Jersey politicians’, unlike the politicians in (26) other states however, have allowed these groups to feed lies to the public keeping this an unresolved issue.

We had a N.J. State Supreme Court review of this matter and they agreed with facts supporting a (5) year black bar management plan to include hunting as a primary tool for managing the black bear population to a level that allows for “safe” co-existence with the human population.

Then we had a change in Governors and DEP Commissioner, both with an anti-hunting philosophy that served to inflate the issue one more time resulting in the cancellation of the hunt and scrapping of the (5) year management program. Yes, after wasting several months of the N.J.State Supreme Courts’ time and taxpayer’s money N.J. politics entered the picture once again interfering in an area in which they have absolutely no experience.

The public opinion on this black bear issue has continued to lean to support of a hunt, a hunt that (26) other states, wherein politics and emotions are not allowed to figure into the equation, have been successful in controlling wild black bears to a number that allows safe co-existence with humans.

N.J. Government, to date, has not yet figured this out instead they are swayed by personal beliefs and the minority voices of radical anti-hunting/animal-rights groups that have more at stake than the actual hunting of black bears in N.J.

At stake for these groups is protecting the only battleground wherein they have succeeded in promoting their anti-hunting platform under the guise of protecting the black bear.

This is not rocket science; there is only so much land to support safe human and black bear population, we either have humans move out or reduce the number of black bears. Black bears do not pay taxes, contribute to industrial growth or create jobs and in spite of the emotional issue the anti’s have created it will not be humans that will move to make room.

Recently, at the N.J. State Fair, hundreds of domestic livestock was on display. Amazing championship cows, pigs, lambs, goats, chickens, ducks, etc. Groomed and competing for ribbons based on confirmation and looks. Just imagine that the offspring of these creatures wind up on the supermarket shelves as food. These very same farmers and the fair visitors that admire these majestic animals eat them as well. They may not do the actual killing but they do consume the food, this includes hordes of anti-hunting/animal-rights people.

A hunter has the legal right to hunt, kill, butcher and consume wild game and that same hunter is no more barbaric than those that travel to stores to purchase and consume domestic animals.

There is one main difference, wild game has a chance to escape and the hunter’s success rate clearly shows that many do, the domestic animal has no escape route..

So basically, all of us that consume meat and poultry and that is 95% of us, are not much different, nor wrong for doing so. Animals are on this earth as part of the food chain; lets’ not forget that nor criticize the method of how we obtain it.

Let’s not blame the professionals’ of our N.J. Fish and Wildlife, they do their job well and the proof is in the now healthy black bear population.

Let’s not blame the black bear for development of land and extraordinary birth rate and if a black bear could talk, they would more-than-likely love to be left alone in their natural habitant, unseen by humans with cameras and/or guns using their skills to outwit predators’.

Let’s not blame hunters’ for following the heritage of our free country pursuing the legal right to hunt and cull wild game for a healthy food source.

 

 – Mike D