It will soon be open season on bears in Florida again.
Despite surveys showing overwhelming opposition, wildlife officials have tentatively approved a three-week bear “harvest” in December. It will be the first bear hunt in a decade.
The stated goal of the Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission is to remove 187 bears from an estimated state population of 4,000.
In parts of Florida, bear sightings have become increasingly common as the majestic, curious and solitary animals forage for food in backyard garbage cans. But killing so many of them as a means of population control is barbaric.
Hundreds attended an emotional hearing in Ocala Wednesday where approval seemed a foregone conclusion. So many showed up that they were limited to one minute each, after which the board silenced their microphones.
A state-sanctioned ‘slaughter’
Hunters endorsed the hunt as a responsible way to manage a bear overpopulation, while opponents criticized the spectacle as a “trophy hunt.”
“This isn’t conservation. This is state-sanctioned slaughter,” said opponent Chris Teodorski of Wesley Chapel.
“Emotions don’t drive wildlife policy. Science does,” said supporter Travis Thompson of All Florida, a conservation group. “It’s time for a bear hunt.”
The five-member Fish & Wildlife board favors the use of bear-tracking dogs and bait stations to lure them, methods prohibited the last time.
The 2015 hunt became a debacle. It was scheduled to last a week, but the state hastily shut it down after two days when nearly 300 bears were killed, close to the maximum allowed.
At the next hunt, the state will also allow bows and arrows, raising the specter of bears suffering lingering and painful deaths.
No protection for cubs
Worse, hunters will not be required to bring bear carcasses to checkpoints, making it possible and perhaps likely that killing female bears with cubs will not be detected.
That would doom two or three bears, not just one, but the cubs’ deaths will never be counted.
This is something that most Floridians vehemently do not want. More than 75% of public comments received before Wednesday’s meeting were negative, the FWC said.
The next hunt is based on bear population numbers that in some cases are at least 10 years old.
It’s difficult to accept the wildlife staff’s claim that the hunt will result in “no net loss” of Florida’s bear population and it almost certainly will not do anything to reduce the number of encounters between humans and bears.
Year after year, developers across the state convert more of the bears’ natural habitat into manicured subdivisions, fast-food restaurants and office plazas. Bears are running out of places.
But there are ways to ensure human safety.
In suburban Orlando, Seminole County has long been a bear-encounter hot spot. But after the county launched an aggressive public campaign to educate residents about securing garbage containers that attract hungry bears with no access to a natural food supply, incident reports plummeted.
‘A win for all Floridians’
But the Fish & Wildlife Commission sees hunters as its natural constituency — not animal lovers.
“The resurgence of the Florida black bear is not just a victory for conservationists; it’s a win for all Floridians,” FWC Chairman Rodney Barreto said. “Hunting is a biologically sound method to slow population growth, resulting in a healthy and well-managed Florida black bear population for the future.”
Barreto and his fellow commissioners are far out of step with public opinion on this issue.
Florida Channel
Steve Hudson of Fort Lauderdale is a member of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
The FWC vote was 4-1, and a second and final vote is scheduled for August.
The lone dissenter was Steve Hudson, a Fort Lauderdale civic and business leader, who according to the News Service of Florida, expressed concerns about non-residents obtaining hunt permits and for allowing people to hunt bears at feeding stations.
Hudson’s concerns are justified, in our view.
Florida doesn’t have a bear population problem as much as it has a problem with suburban sprawl and overdevelopment that has violated the bears’ natural habitat.
No bear should have to die because of us, but some of them inevitably will.
The Sun Sentinel Editorial Board consists of Opinion Editor Steve Bousquet, Deputy Opinion Editor Dan Sweeney, editorial writers Pat Beall and Martin Dyckman, and Executive Editor Gretchen Day-Bryant. To contact us, email at letters@sun-sentinel.com.