What does the NRA have to do with laws
and by-laws in
this country let alone Florida?
And lots of it!
Wave money at any
Florida Government Official
(Senator Bill Nelson) is the only exception,
and they will give
you their; first born, wife, right arm, county, town, city, state and country.
I count 'Old Baldy'
as the greediest!
NRA Calls for
Renewed and Extended Hunt of Florida Bears that “Terrorize Homeowners”
June 1, 2016
11 Responses for
“NRA Calls for Renewed and Extended Hunt Of Florida Bears that
“Terrorize
Homeowners””
RESPONSE # 3 gets my
vote!
Geezer says:
June 1, 2016 at 5:38
pm
Back in 1999, there
was a black bear in Ocala that ate
a whole family while they slept.
That
same damned bear later carjacked a church bus and drove it through a
7-11, and ripped out
an ATM with his bare (not “bear”) paws.
He became enraged to find out that the
7-11 had no honey in stock.
“I bear you no ill will,” he said to the
terrified cashier.
“Please don’t kill me,” he exclaimed to the big bear.
The bear replied:
“don’t worry, I got a bellyache from the people I ate earlier.”
“Where can I get
some honey?”
He called Boo-Boo on
his cell phone, and told him the he just couldn’t bear it any more
and he was going to
hitch a ride to Bear Mountain in NY state.
He’s a Yankee bear
you know.
More later….
A terrorist,
according to the NRA. (FWC)
As a renewed debate
builds about the issue, the National Rifle Association and the Unified
Sportsmen of Florida are urging the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation
Commission to hold a bear hunt later this year.
The gun-rights
organizations’ influential Tallahassee lobbyist, Marion Hammer, sent a letter
Tuesday to the commission that also called for steps such as increasing the
number of days to hunt.
“Bears continue to
terrorize homeowners and prevent families from allowing children to play
outside in
some areas,” Hammer,
a past president of the NRA and the executive director of the Unified Sportsmen
of Florida, wrote. “And while FWC is working to educate people about securing
trash and is trying to move dangerous bears out of residential areas, those
programs are helpful but cannot succeed without hunts to reduce the
population.”
Commissioners, who
approved a controversial bear hunt last year but have not made a decision about
another hunt, are expected to receive a staff recommendation prior to a meeting
June 22 in the Franklin County community of Eastpoint.
The October 2015 hunt — the first in the state in more than two decades —
was scheduled for seven days, but ended after two days as
hunters killed 304 bears. The state agency had put a 320-bear quota on the hunt
and later acknowledged it “underestimated the hunter success for the first
day.”
The state didn’t put
a cap on the number of permits that could be issued in the 2015 hunt, charging
state residents $100 to participate. Hunters from out of state had to pay $300.
Money raised from
the permits helps pay for community efforts to manage the bear population
through programs such as bear-proof trash containers.
Kate MacFall,
Florida state director for The Humane Society, said while hunt opponents push
for non-lethal means to reduce human-bear conflicts and see opposition growing
against another hunt, they believe commissioners have already decided.
“It’s trophy
hunting, which we certainly don’t support,” MacFall said. “Floridians love
bears. Their (the bears) subpopulations are already fragmented. They’re already
having a tough time with habitat destruction, huge developments, so many people
moving to Florida … there are so many challenges that these bears already
face.”
Commission staff
members have been holding a series of webinars that recap the 2015 hunt, offer
the latest estimates on the numbers of bears in Florida, summarize efforts to
reduce incidents involving humans and bears and take public input. The final
webinar is planned for Thursday night.
Harry Dutton, leader
of the commission’s hunting and game management division, said last week that
“for a possible future hunt” officials are looking at the length and time of
year for the hunt and limiting the number of permits. Also, they are looking at
how check stations are monitored, rules for hunting on wildlife management
areas, the prohibition on baiting bears, the use of dogs to track bears and the
minimum size of bears that could be killed.
In last year’s hunt,
there was a 100-pound minimum as bears under that weight are considered cubs.
The agency
estimates, based on recent surveys, 4,220 bears are in the state, up from 2,640
in 2002. The population growth has been called robust as the estimated bear
count was as low as 300 to 500 in the 1970s, when bears were put on the state’s
list of threatened species. Bears were removed from the list in 2012.
Local government
officials from Seminole, Miami-Dade and Volusia counties have voiced opposition
to a repeat of the 2015 hunt. Officials in Flagler County have been silent.
During a three-hour
webinar Thursday, commission staff members were adamant that a hunt is among
the various ways to manage the state’s growing bear population and to reduce
human-bear interactions. Another webinar was scheduled for today.
“When we look at
what FWC and partner agencies and others are doing, we’re throwing everything
and the kitchen sink at bears right now,” Dave Telesco, commission
bear-management program coordinator, said during the webinar. “We’re doing
education. We’re trying for ordinances.
We’re trying to get
voluntary compliance in securing trash. We’re hunting and we’re moving bears.
And so we’re basically trying to do everything that we can to reduce those
conflicts and to reduce the risks to public safety.”
Thomas Eason,
director of the commission’s habitat and species conservation division, said
the agency can’t just focus on educating people to secure trash and food when
left outside and expect bears and humans not to cross paths.
“We’re looking at
over 200 bears that are being hit by vehicles, that means people are in those
vehicles,” Eason said during the webinar. “Part of the rationale behind the
hunt is to help shift mortality away from things where it’s impacting people
negatively.”
Harry Dutton, leader
of the hunting and game management division, said “for a possible future hunt”
officials are looking at the length and time of year for the hunt and limiting
the number of permits. Also, they are looking at how check stations are monitored,
rules for hunting on wildlife management areas, the prohibition on baiting
bears, the use of dogs to track bears and the minimum size of bears that could
be killed.
About 600 questions
were submitted during last week’s live-chat session, most from a handful of
bear-hunt critics, and many were redundant as some participants came in and out
during the 150-minute question and answer portion.
The webinar opened
with a brief outline on the growth of the bear population in the state, a recap
of the 2015 bear hunt, the latest estimates on the numbers of bears in Florida
and efforts to reduce incidents involving humans and bears.
The state agency
currently estimates, based upon recent surveys, 4,220 bears are in the state,
up from 2,640 in 2002. The population growth has been called robust as the
estimated bear count was as low as 300 to 500 in the 1970s, when bears were put
on the state’s list of threatened species. Bears were removed from the list in
2012.
Critics of bear
hunting rattled off questions about issues such as why the state agency doesn’t
provide free bear-proof trash cans in areas where nuisance calls are made.
Also, they raised questions about whether nuisance bears should be relocated
deeper into the wilderness and into less populated areas and if the state
agency is “embarrassed about the worldwide media coverage they received last
year opposing the hunt?”
“FWC claims that the
science is there for a hunt, but that doesn’t mean that a bear hunt should or
must take place,” wrote Laura Bevan, a webinar participant and the regional
director of the Humane Society of the United States, which opposed last year’s hunt.
A few of the critics
added that if another hunt is held, the state should limit bear-hunt permits to
Florida residents or simply use professional hunters to manage the population
and avoid a “free for all.”
“Why does FWC pander
to the small few ‘problem people’ who hate or are intolerant to bears? Why does
FWC push so hard for a trophy hunt?” asked webinar participant Lee Day.
Those posing
questions that favored hunting bear pushed to allow baiting and to expand the
role of dogs in the hunts on certain lands larger than 50,000 acres. Also, they
raised ideas about holding the hunt in the spring, excluding from the state’s
Sunshine Law the names of permit holders and having the hunt last longer.
This year, Florida
lawmakers included $500,000 in the new state budget to reduce human-bear
conflicts. A large part of the money is revenue from permits sold for the 2015
hunt. The money doesn’t become available until after the July 1 start of the
new fiscal year.
–Jim Turner, News
Service of Florida
