Black bear hunting has been banned for more than a decade in Florida, but a rule adopted Wednesday by state wildlife officials passed unanimously in favor of the plan during a meeting that drew many residents in a public hearing in strong opposition to hunting along with the use of dogs and baiting stations.
According to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, the Florida town of Havana where the meeting was held, became quite contentious. The commissioner chair person said decisions about the bear hunt has been based on science.
Wildlife advocates call the approved hunting nothing more than trophy hunting and animal cruelty. The real issue is mostly based on humans encroaching bear habitats as Florida continues to cut down forests and build huge home site developments. Even some hunters agree that nature “has to be kept in balance.”
Commission Chairman Rodney Barreto sought to imply that the public had requested a bear hunt. However, there is video evidence from the December 2024 meeting in which Commissioner Gary Lester proposed a bear hunt immediately following a Bear Management Plan update. The facts tell a different story.
According to Bear Defenders, FWC’s lead bear biologist, Mike Orlando, stated after presenting the Bear Management Plan update that “no action was needed.” At no point in his most recent presentation did he indicate that a hunt was warranted, that Florida’s bear population was overabundant, that growth rates required slowing, that suitable habitat was insufficient, that bears were starving, or that they posed a significant public safety threat.
Instead, Orlando emphasized that securing attractants, particularly through bear-resistant trash cans, is the most effective means of reducing bear-human conflicts. Hunting does not achieve this.
There are an estimated 4,000 black bears in Florida. There is no doubt that bears can be found rooting through trash and roaming neighborhoods, but most of the blame is on humans for allowing this to happen. They leave food out, their trash cans are not secured, and bears are opportunists, and that’s the fault of humans. Once the bears get accustomed to the easy way to find food, they become annoying – not because they deserve to be killed, but because some humans have little respect for sharing our planet with wildlife.
Although the commission tried to scare people with bears being threats, there has only been one documented fatal black bear attack in Florida in May when an 89-year-old man and his dog had been in a rural area when a bear attacked.
As for the new rules, this year there will be a random drawing of 187 permits. Hunters will be only able to kill one bear and only in certain parts of the state where the bear population is large enough. Hunters will be forbidden to kill cubs or sows with cubs. Each permit will cost $100 for Florida residents and $300 for non residents.
This year, the hunt is scheduled to be held from December 6 to December 31, however in the future bear hunts will be scheduled between October 1 and December 31. In the future hunters will be able to use up to six dogs to hunt for bears.
And there’s more – private landowners with more than 5,000 acres could hold a “bear harvest program,” where bears could be hunted at bait feeding stations. Also bowhunting would be allowed for hunting deer.
Via Bear Defenders – please don’t give up the fight:
This is a dangerous precedent. When an overwhelming majority of the public is disregarded in favor of special and personal interests and when those entrusted with protecting wildlife distort facts to justify killing them, it erodes both public trust and the integrity of wildlife “management.”
And just in case, anyone doesn’t remember what happened 10 years ago with the bear hunting debacle, in 2015 Florida held a brief hunting season. It had been the first in 21 years, but it was quickly ended. Hunters killed more than 300 bears in two days – including lactating females with cubs, prompting a public outcry. Hunters didn’t report the bears they killed and some hunters never had purchased a license.
There had been 3,700 permits sold in 2015 which generated $376,000 supposedly dedicated to funding bear resistant equipment and management, but there was no accountability for the funding nor was anything done to keep humans and bears at respectable distances from each other.
One would think humans could learn from their mistakes.
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You can watch the meeting here.
