Bears beware! Florida OKs black bear hunting after 10-year pause

(CN) —They came wearing hunter orange and camouflage, others with homemade t-shirts reading “Stop the Bear Hunt” and hats emblazoned with “Defend Animals.” Speakers with Southern accents espoused their generations-old roots stalking game in rural Florida. Animal advocates decried trophy hunting. One woman came with a lawsuit.

And after nearly three hours of public comment, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission on Wednesday unanimously approved the state’s first black bear hunting season in 10 years.

“It passes,” Robert Barreto, the chairman of the commission, said from the dais, situated inside a small North Florida police academy hall.

The vote was followed by groans from the crowd.

“Got it?” Barreto addressed the audience, smirking. “Anybody surprised?”

Per the approved rules by the FWC, the state will begin a three-week hunting season in December, regulated to certain known bear habitats, with hunters chosen by a lottery system. Hunters are allowed one bear each and no more than 200 bears can be taken statewide.

The quota of bears taken by hunters, though, can change annually without a vote from the commission. In the next two years, the rules will expand the season from October to the end of the year, allow hunting dogs, bow hunting and use of game feeding stations. Large landowners will also have fewer restrictions, including allowing up to three hunted bears.

Out of 40 states with black bears, 34 allow some form of hunting. Throughout most of the 20th century, Florida allowed the hunting of bears until 1994, according to state records. Then, in 2015, with more reports of bear encounters, the state’s conservation agency voted on a two-month season on the ursine. That lasted two days, with FWC halting the hunts, citing 295 bears had been killed, just shy of the 320 limit for the season.

In December, commissioners newly appointed by Governor Ron DeSantis, asked staff to revisit the issue.

“While there is enough habitat to support current bear numbers, a highly regulated hunt would prevent future negative impacts of overpopulation, which could result in dramatic swings and risk of overall survival long term,” said FWC chief conservation officer George Warthen during a presentation at Wednesday’s hearing.

The agency estimates the black bear population in Florida is around 4,000 and says the species’ population has increased by 50% since 1992.

“Staff recognizes that bear hunting is a topic that garners strong opinions from many people,” Warthen said.

Between public comment in May’s initial hearing and emails to the agency, more than 10,000 Floridians weighed in on the proposal. More than 100 signed up on Wednesday to speak, beginning with sheriffs and county commissioners.

“Bears are not urban animals,” said Sandy Quinn, a county commissioner from the state’s panhandle. “In the last few years, we’ve seen a growing concern among residents about the black bear population. More and more, we see them in our neighborhoods, playgrounds and right to our front doors.”

Newton Cook of United Waterfowlers Florida also approved of the measure.

“Everyone in here loves the wilderness, loves wild places,” Cook said. “Bears and man have evolved together over the eons. All we’re doing today is returning Florida back to the wilderness in terms of man’s relationship with bears.”

But Susannah Randolph of Sierra Club Florida pushed back against claims of conservation by proponents.

“Is our future one of trophy hunters standing over dead animals in vast concrete parking lots?” she asked the commission. “Or is it one that will preserve the unique beauty of wild Florida for our children?”

Mark Klutho, a long blonde-haired man wearing a t-shirt reading, “1 out of 3 Trump supporters are just as stupid as the other 2,” said the rules amounted to “trophy hunting.”

“You are 6,000 times more likely to be murdered by a human than a black bear,” he said.

Minutes later, another speaker pointed to a May report by the commission, documenting the first fatal Florida black bear attack in state history.

Daniel Parker of the United States Association of Reptile Keepers championed his Florida roots.

“I am opposed to the bear hunt,” he said. “Not because I’m anti-hunting, and not because I’m an animal rights activist, but because I’m a conservationist.”

“I don’t think the data supports the call for a bear hunt,” Parker added. “We just don’t know enough. There’s too much of a mystery out there.”

Before the vote, the FWC chairman attempted to quell the crowd.

“Numerous speakers spoke of the fact that the bear habitat has been taken away by development,” said Barreto, a longtime developer and lobbyist who was first appointed to the commission two decades ago by former Governor Jeb Bush. “I just kind of want to remind the public that this commission does not vote on zoning. We don’t vote on development.”

Outside the venue, Raquel Levy, an attorney for Bear Warriors United, vowed to fight the “trophy bear hunt.”

“It is my intention, today, to file a lawsuit against the FWC for this atrocity,” Levy said. “We know that most Floridians oppose this bear hunt.”

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