Today, Friday August 22, 2008 1:30 PM, my daughter who works for me received a call from her (9) year old son who along with her (7) year old daughter, my grandchildren, were being watched by their grandmother.

Mommy, there is a big bear and three cubs in the backyard, by the swing set, they are lying in the grass. Grandma is scared as they are coming near the deck.

My daughter immediately left for home while I called the New Jersey Division of Fish & Wildlife where I received an answering machine message that if this was a black bear emergency to call the local police.

I immediately called the local police and spoke with a dispatcher who went through a scripted response; where are the bears, do you have a bird feeder and is your garbage out?

On the back deck, no and no I replied. Well the dispatcher said there is nothing we can do because they are just hanging out in your backyard, stay inside and don’t let them in.

Wow!! Another rocket scientist. I said well somebody better get there fast because there is a scared grandmother and two young children with a bear on the deck.

My daughter arrived and the bears were still there she took pictures from inside the house and as the police pulled up they left and descended into the backyard down into someone else’s’ backyard.

When everything was calm she returned to work and said, you know Dad what is really scary is that Grandma was about to take the kids outside to play on that swing set. Now I am really concerned since you really can’t even feel safe in your own backyard, in fact myself and some of the more intelligent neighbors, as there are some that think it is cute to have them wandering into your yard and garages, are afraid to even take a walk with the kids or the puppy.

We got rid of the bird feeder a long time ago; we put the garbage in the garage.

Well Daughter you are not alone as each day more and more families are finding that both anti-hunters and animal-rights groups have duped our politicians, into believing that we can just allow the bear population to continue growing without posing a danger to human life.

They have even duped some police departments, like yours where a dispatcher with absolute no real knowledge begins a lecture on how garbage causes the problems. Yes garbage is like a leaking condom, it produces babies.

Garbage, must be secured everyone now knows that, but that is no longer an answer to the dangerous black bear problem that we have in N.J. today. We have too many black bears because the political football is still being tossed about to prolong the only proven method of black bear population control; HUNTING.

When does this stop? When do the politicians back out and allow the F&G to do what they did in 2003 and 2005, hold a hunt that guess what? Really worked as black bear complaints went where? DOWN.

Any idiot can do this simple math, not enough natural habitant, more humans more bears, more problems.

Time and time again, those of us in the know sound like a broken record, (26) other states use hunting and have limited black bear problems while still maintaining an adequate number of black bears for the tree hugging thick heads.

Why do we have to wait for an already failed black bear management program to let everyone down, let them down to what? The serious injury or death to some innocent human, more than likely a child.

We have received the warning from the black bear, they are going past secured garbage and long ago discarded bird feeders to the next food source; kitchens, garages now inside our houses.

So some dispatcher makes a decision as to when the black bear is dangerous, only when they are trying to get into your house. Wrong. They are dangerous whenever you see them, whenever they are near you, they can break through any door or patio glass window quicker than a human thief. They are unpredictable and as we tighten up there food supply, garbage and birdfeeders, they will find our kitchens and garages.

This happened in Fredon last month and only disclosed last week, when a black bear attempting to enter a house for the third time, once chasing two children, was shot by the owner who was carrying a legally registered pistol, on his own property.

Just yesterday, a Vernon man going home on route 515, attempted to avoid a black bear running into the road and is now in critical condition with head injuries after hitting a utility pole. Good advice for the future, run the freakin bear over before you kill yourself or some other innocent person/person’s attempting to “save-a-bear”.

This has to end anyone reading this who values human life, your family or some other innocent family better write your congressman, senators, the Governor and DEP Commissioner Lisa Jackson and ask that this non-sense, stop, because the black bear program in this state failed in 2000, 2001, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2007, 2008 that is (7) years of failure listening to politicians and (2) years of success 2003 and 2005, listening to our professional biologists and NJDF&W.

Need any more proof? If yes take a reality check.

 

Mike D.