Florida’s first bear hunt in decades is scheduled to start near the end of October. It’s a move wildlife officials say will help to control the animal’s population. But activists allege in a court case, the hunt is evidence the agency is failing to follow its duty under the state constitution to protect wildlife.
About 40 people signed up through a facebook event to protest the state’s bear hunt. The plan was to meet after a hearing to get an injunction, blocking the hunt while the courts considered the case’s constitutional argument. But after Leon Circuit Judge George Reynolds III denied the request for an injunction, just a small handful of protesters showed up.
“Well, we’re sad,” said Matthew Schwartz, Executive Director of the South Florida Wildlands Association. “It looked for a while like things were going in a good direction.”
And while the effort fizzled quickly, many involved in the case say they’re not ready to give up. One concern Schwartz and others opposed to the hunt are raising is the number of bear hunting permits sold. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission is limiting the hunt to just 320 bears, with more specific limits based on region. But more than 2,000 hunters have purchase permits.
“They could have started a lot slower. Like, for example, if you were going to have a quota of I think it was 80 bears in the South area. So, issue 80 permits and see how it goes," Schwartz said.
Hunt protesters are concerned once the hunters start shooting, it will be difficult to stop them, even once that 320 bear limit has been met. And that’s something Judge Reynolds questioned Commission officials about in court.
“If you give it any thought, you can’t just blow a loud horn and everybody hears it because people are scattered deep in the woods,” Reynolds said
But that’s something the FWC's Hunting and Game Management Director Diane Eggeman says the commission can handle. She says the commission will deploy what she calls a “focused” law enforcement effort during the week of the hunt. And she says once the hunt reaches its limit, the FWC has a plan in place for communicating that to hunters.
“We’ll share the information about whether it’s open or closed through email addresses that they have. We will text it to hunters who provide their cell phone numbers. We will make that information available on social media and we have a phone hotline for them to call in as well,” Eggeman said
Another issue protesters have raised concerns about is the accuracy of the bear population numbers, which have been extrapolated from an old count. But FWC officials say the bear population was large enough, even when the old count was conducted to warrant a hunt.
Meanwhile, the FWC has announced plans to request that revenue brought in from the sale of the hunting permits be used to help subsidize the purchase of bear proof trash cans in communities near large bear populations. One of the main reasons bears are coming out of the woods and into neighborhoods is because they’re drawn by the smell of food. FWC officials say using bear proof trash cans will help to reduce human-bear conflicts and reduce the number of bears that must be euthanized because they have come to associate humans with food. But back outside the court house, Julie Watkins, Executive Director of the Girls Gone Green says that doesn’t change her mind about the hunt.
"How do you kill a species in order to save a species? Sorry to go there but you know, conservation, it’s not killing. We only have 3,000 bears. It doesn’t make any sense that we can’t find room for them. We really do need to learn to coexist with out wildlife,” Watkins says.
And Watkins points out that money hasn’t been appropriated yet. Meanwhile, while the hunt is scheduled to continue, so is the court case. Lawyers for the animal rights group behind the case have said they’re prepared to take it to the state Supreme Court.
