House Reps on Crack About Florida’s Black Bears

Some Representatives and a Sheriff have decided that they know more than FWC and are taking their authority away from them to manage bears.

In histrionic pleas these people are casting a bad light on our bears and outright fear-mongering. To hear them or read what they are saying, it is obvious they are not educated abou tour bears and just want to get them killed as what they think is a quick fix to a problem that people have created.

Our bears have not changed contrary to one comment. They are thesame non-aggressive bears going about their daily lives withvery predictable actions. Representative Jason Shoaf seems to think we have bears on crack! He actually has said this. Wild comments from him. He and Rep. Dean Black and Sheriff in Franklin County A.J. Smith need an education about our bears instead of trying to incite riots over them.

Bears have a strong sense of smell which helps them to find the food they need to survive. Most of the time it leads them to berries, nuts, insects, and honey made by bees. Once in a while, it leads them to carrion or a small mammal. But there are also times, all too frequently, when their noses lead them right to someone’s unsecured trash, bird feeder, deer feeder, dirty barbecue grill, etc.

Being opportunistic feeders they go after those wonderful smelling attractants and are not discouraged when the trash cans and dumpsters are not secured. They are clever and know how to open things.
Flimsy trashcans are no challenge, nor are screens on people’s porches.

FWC and others have carefully designed websites to instruct people who live among bears about what to do and what not to do to avoid interactions with the bears. People, however, are lazy and do not want to do what they need todo. This creates a death sentence for a bear.

Florida’s population of humans continues to grow by leaps and bounds, taking more and more habitat from the bears by development and congesting the roads that bears must traverse to move to find food, home ranges, and mates.

In 2023 there were 364 deaths recorded by FWC. This does not include the ones by poaching, cannibalism, and other means that are not discovered.

Representatives of the House and Senate have made some false and outlandish remarks regarding our bears. Their influence has caused a wave of negativism and misinformation to others who voted to allow for a “Right to Kill” bear. Firstly, people have always had the right to protect themselves from wildlife and there was no need for these efforts to create an unneeded storm of hostility and fear about our bears which may cause a frenzy of untrained and experienced shooters to shoot offrounds to kill bears. Imagine flying bullets going off in your neighborhood.

How this all got started is unknown but appears to be a backlash for their not being a bear hunt since 2015. FWC’s flawed hunt in 2015 caused people to be aware of the carnage that an irresponsible bear hunt can cause. Too many hunters did not follow the rules. FWC was not prepared for the amount of bears that would be killed so soon . The hunters laughed and said they could walk right up to them, they were like sitting ducks. That’s because our bears are timid and not out to eat people (as said by some.) Lactating mothers were killed and will be killed again leaving orphaned cubs to die creating even more deaths.

Now it is being said that the bill(s) are being changed to include property. That is, if one fears their property is going to be destroyed they can kill a bear. This is too far-reaching and is downright ridiculous.
Some people own a lot of property. Is a bear scratching a tree destroying someone’s property? There are too many variables. Also, the bills were voted on beforethis was added and do not give the previous voters to vote again withthe knowledge of this change.

Something is sinister and wrong with these bills that are beingwritten and with the people who are supporting them. Either that or they are ignorant and naive. I tend to believe it is an effort to get around
a hunt and has nothing to do with human safety.

Where are the scientists, biologists, the people that have an education about our bears? They are not being represented in the media nor heard in the halls of justice. Nor is the public. Okay, maybe a few have managed to make the long trek to Tallahassee, rent a motel for a few nights, and speak for a couple of minutes but this leaves out the tremendous amount of people who can’t do that.

In studying the bears for eight years, I’ve learned a lot about their hardships, their being maligned by some, and the workings of some to destroy them. It’s truly sad that in this green age of environmentalism and a beautiful state such as Florida, some wish to annihilate that which is good and beautiful.

It’s going to be too late when the barn door is open and all the animals get out to try to close the door as the saying goes. When hundreds of bears from cubs to grandfather bears are laying dead across the state. When people are dying from from wayward bullets that did not hit the shooter’s target but instead hit a child or neighbor. When will some people listen?

We told you what was going to happen in 2015 and we were not listened to. You know how tragic that was for our bears and would have been much worse had we not stepped in to have the hunt stopped.

We the people, have a right as fellow stakeholders to hold you accountable for our wildlife, our bears. If we cannot make you listen, we can vote you out of office, and be sure we will try.

Florida is made up of many people. Not just hunters, not just republicans that side with the NRA. Obviously, from the voting by the House and the Senate, this is political for it’s heavily one-sided by those voting for these ridiculous and deadly bills.

364 bears were recorded as dead in FWC’s records. How many were not recorded? Poachers, cannibalism, injured bears that run into the woods and die and arenot found. There are too many bears dying and not enough births to make the population of them to be exploding as some say. A female gives birth every
two years with a litter rate of 2.5. That’s if she gets enough to eat. Onlyafter she is 4 years old is she able to give birth. Cubs die at a rate of 50% before the age of one year old. You do the math.

Please, do your research. Educate yourself, secure your trash and become
bear-wise.

Florida – People vs Bears

Some Representatives and a Sheriff have decided that they know more than FWC and are taking their authority away from them to manage bears. In histrionic pleas these people are casting a bad light on our bears and outright fear-mongering. To hear them or read what they are saying, it is obvious they are not educated about our bears and just want to get them killed as what they think is a quick fix to a problem that people have created.

Our bears have not changed contrary to one comment. They are even being called, “Crack Bears,” by one representative.  They are the same non-aggressive bears going about their daily lives with very predictable actions. They have a strong sense of smell which helps them to find the food they need to survive. Most of the time it leads them to berries, nuts, insects, and honey made by bees. Once in a while, it leads them to carrion, or a small mammal. But there are also times, all too frequently, when their noses lead them right to someone’s unsecured trash, bird feeder, deer feeder, dirty barbecue grill, etc.

Being opportunistic feeders they go after those wonderful smelling attractants and are not discouraged when the trash cans and dumpsters are not secured. They are clever and know how to open things. Flimsy trashcans are no challenge, nor are screens on people’s porches. FWC and others have carefully designed websites to instruct people who live among bears about what to do and what not to do to avoid interactions with the bears.

People, however, are lazy and do not want to do what they need to do. This creates a death sentence for a bear. Florida’s population of humans continues to grow by leaps and bounds, taking more and more habitat from the bears by development and congesting the roads that bears must traverse to move to find food, home ranges, and to find mates.

In 2023 there were 364 deaths recorded by FWC. This does not include the ones by poaching, cannibalism, and other means that are not discovered. Some representatives of the House and Senate have made some false and outlandish remarks regarding our bears. Their influence has caused a wave of negativism and misinformation to others who voted to allow for a “Right to Kill” bear. Firstly, people have always had the right to protect themselves from wildlife and there was no need for these efforts to create an unneeded storm of hostility and fear about our bears which may cause a frenzy of untrained and experienced shooters to shoot off rounds to kill bears.

How this all got started is unknown but there appears to be a backlash for there not being a bear hunt since 2015. FWC’s flawed hunt in 2015 caused people to be aware of the carnage that an irresponsible bear hunt can cause. Too many hunters did not follow the rules. FWC was not prepared for the amount of bears that would be killed so soon. The hunters laughed and said they could walk right up to them, they were like sitting ducks. That’s because our bears are timid and not out to eat people (as said by some.) Lactating mothers were killed and will be killed again leaving orphaned cubs to die creating even more deaths.

People will not follow the few rules in these bills. Some will shoot a bear that comes onto their property no matter what and then lie when questioned about the circumstances of it. Of course, there will be no proof otherwise. Now it is being said that the bill(s) are being changed to include property. If one fears their property is going to be destroyed they can kill a bear. This is too far-reaching and is downright ridiculous. Some people own a lot of property. Is a bear scratching a tree destroying someone’s property?

There are too many variables. Also, the bills were voted on before this was added and do not give the previous voters to vote again with the knowledge of this change. The prior votes should all be thrown out. Something is sinister and wrong with these bills that are being written and with the people who are supporting them. Either that or they are ignorant and naive. I tend to believe it is an effort to get around a hunt and has nothing to do with human safety.

Representative Jason Shoaf said that people should be able to walk their dog at night without fear that a 400 lb bear is going to attack them. A person who lives in a bear habitat should not walk a dog at night when bears are out foraging but if they do, they should have their dog on a leash and carry bear spray with them. You, Rep. Shoaf, in your comment, extend the killing beyond a person’s property which is not included in the bills.

Where are the scientists, biologists, the people that have an education about our bears? They are not being represented in the media nor heard in the halls of justice. Nor is the public. In studying the bears for eight years, I’ve learned a lot about their hardships, how they are being maligned by some, and the workings of some to destroy them. It’s truly sad that in this green age of environmentalism and a beautiful state such as Florida, some wish to annihilate that which is good and beautiful.

It’s going to be too late when the barn door is open and all the animals get out to try to close the door. When hundreds of bears from cubs to grandfather bears are laying dead across the state. When people are dying from bullets that did not hit the shooter’s target but instead hit a child or neighbor. When will you people listen? We told you what was going to happen in 2015 and we were not listened to. You know how tragic that was for our bears and would have been much worse had we not stepped in to have the hunt stopped.

We the people, have a right as fellow stakeholders to hold you accountable for our wildlife, our bears. If we cannot make you listen, we can vote you out of office, and be sure we will try. Florida is made up of many people. Not just hunters, not just republicans that side with the NRA.

364 bears were recorded as dead in FWC’s records. How many were not recorded? Poachers, cannibalism, injured bears that run into the woods and die and are not found, starvation, etc. There are too many bears dying and not enough births to make the population of them to be exploding as some say. A female gives birth every two years with a litter rate of 2.5. That’s if she gets enough to eat. Only after she is 4 years old is she able to give birth. Cubs die at a rate of 50% before the age of one year old. You do the math.. People need to be made to secure their trash and become bear-wise.

FWC – Stop Bear Hunting in Florida!

Florida Black Bears (Ursus americanus floridanus)

Florida black bears are a subspecies of the American Black
Bear and exist in Florida and small areas of southern Georgia, Alabama
and Mississippi. There are guesstimated to be around 4,050 bears in Florida
but with 327 being killed from 03/03/22 to 03/01/23, one has to wonder if
that number is not actually less.

The Florida black bear is a shy and timid species and is not dangerous
unless it’s a mother with cubs or you frighten it. They just want to
be left alone to live their best lives. Most people get into trouble with
them when they try to get between a mother and her cubs or have a yappy
dog they are walking between dusk and dawn when bears forage.

These bears love to eat as all bears do, and will investigate and steal
your trash if you leave it out for them. This is against the law, by the
way. There are specially made trash cans to keep them out of trash and there are cheap to free straps available to lock the ones you have. (see Bear Warriors
United on Facebook to inquire about the straps)

We have been fighting against a bear hunt since they announced one in 2015
after many years of not having one and even having the bears on the endangered
list for many years when their numbers had been reduced to around 300 from
being over-hunted. This is where the FWC has stepped in to make sure this
does not ever happen again and that’s great but we do not believe our bears
should be hunted ever again.

Bears are able to regulate their own numbers. Nature is very good at that.
The reason why FWC (Florida Wildlife and Fish Conservation Commission) has
bear hunts is to please the hunters who want to kill bears for trophies
and bragging rights. Totally ridiculous!

FWC has a mandated job to provide hunting opportunities to hunters. So they
buy up land for them to hunt on and provide hunting opportunities for them.
Did you know that hunting has been in decline for many years and wildlife agencies are scrambling to gather more people to hunt? They groom our children and entice them with camping, archery, fishing, and shooting. They are after minorities too because they typically do not hunt. This means, women and different races.
Women are nurturers, it is not in their nature to kill. What kind of enjoyment
would they get from killing a precious animal? But still, they are tying to
get them interested. There are some women who do hunt (how disgusting.)

Hunting is such bred tradition deeply woven into the minds of men
from centuries ago. To some, they aren’t a man unless they hunt. To me, they
aren’t a man because they do hunt. I grew up with a father and brother that hunted. My son became a hunter and my husband hunted for many years. When they
announced they were going to have a bear hunt in Florida in 2015, it hit my soul and I knew it was so wrong. Since then, I’ve been fighting against it.

Bears are not the menace that FWC and the hunters want others to believe they
are. The reason why they make them out to be is so you’ll want a hunt. FWC
isn’t as bad as the hunters because they downright lie and FWC just bakes the numbers and influences the media.

In late spring, yearlings are forced by their mothers to leave them and go out on their own to find their own territory. This is so the mothers will become fertile again. If the yearlings do not leave, older male bears will kill them so the female will become fertile for breeding. Nature can be cruel.

Young cubs generally do not reach the age of one year. There are many reasons for this such as mentioned and from vehicle crashes, starvation, den cave-ins, fire and other prey. The fight for survival is hard on bears. In a state where over 1,000 move to every day, the traffic is awful and crossing roads is very dangerous.

In the fall, bears must pack on the pounds to survive their lethargy period which is denning in other states and denning in Florida is not quite as much. But for the female to give birth, she must gain a lot of weight or she will not
give birth or the litter will be smaller in number. This time of year the saw palmetto berries are available and full of fat for the bears. They are one of the most important foods for them, however, they are a lucrative product to the pharmaceutical industry and many people pick them. A lot of times they
are picked unlawfully. In order to pick you must have a permit and or permission from the land owner. On state property, they are not allowed to pick. Permits are free yet some choose not to get them, and some pick during the night under the cover of darkness. They will be dropped off and picked back up so they remain undetected. Harvesting runs from around August to November. Harvesters remove the stalks, unfortunately, which in the spring would bring flowers for the bees and other pollinators. It’s something that really needs
to be controlled but as of yet is poorly managed.

When cubs are born they weigh about 12 ounces each. They are very tiny! You
would think that an animal like a bear would have bigger babies, but they don’t. After about three months they are ready to leave their den and go find out what life is all about on the outside. The mother stays very close and will have them go up a tree if danger lurks. With their very sharp claws that do not retract they are very agile climbers. They will stay with their mother for 15 to 17 months, learning important life skills and being protected by her. Small cubs do fall prey to other animals and only 50% of them live to the age of one year. Vehicles again, are another cause of death.

You might be wondering, “But what about deer?” – The forests are manipulated to produce new growth which causes the deer to eat more. The more they eat, the more offspring they produce, and the more deer for hunters to kill. See how it all works?

I hope you will not stop learning about hunting and its fallacies of it. There is a lot to learn! Don’t be fooled by those who are supposed to be in charge or know everything. They are the ones that are manipulating you and everything else.

Saw Palmetto Berry Harvesting Regulations Must Be Strengthened Now

Vitally Important to hundreds of species of our wildlife, their natural resource is being ravaged and they are being robbed of this much-needed plant’s benefits.

(Petition Link at the Bottom)

To the Florida Department of Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Freid:

Saw Palmetto Berries and their plants are used by over 300 species of wildlife including black bears, honeybees, and other important natives to Florida.  They are vital to black bears when the fruit comes in at the time when bears must be packing on pounds to go through their torpor state in winter.  If a female bear does not gain enough weight, she will not give birth or have a smaller litter.  Some bears literally starve through this period.  

Saw Palmetto berries have become a very lucrative business in Florida and draw more and more pickers with each year, especially as our economy plummets.  The requirements for pickers are permits which are free and permissions from property owners.  State land and wildlife management areas are forbidden to pick from.

Pickers can make hundreds of dollars a day. And not only them but the private buyers that they sell to. They are a middleman.  Then those buyers sell to larger corporations that sell to pharmaceuticals.    As you can see there is a lot of money being made off of our natural resources which cost the pickers nothing.  

The pickers cut the stalks to shake the berries off into their buckets.  Cutting the stalks off prevents the plants from flowering in the spring, thus preventing bees and other pollinators from getting that nectar.    

Pickers also skip getting permits for various reasons.  Perhaps some are undocumented and are afraid of being caught. They will harvest undercover at night or be dropped off and then picked back up to avoid detection.  Arrests are numerous but there are not enough officers to catch most of them.  

Hunters and fishermen are all required to have licenses and permits but pickers are not.  This shouldn’t be. They are taking our resources and that of the wildlife, etc. without having to compensate at all for it.  If they are arrested the fines are low and they aren’t worried because the profits from the berries far outweigh the fines.  

So changes need to be made.  There need to be licensed buyers and crew leaders. There need to be paid permits by the pickers to benefit our state. It should be illegal to cut off the stalks of the plants that the berries and flowers are born on.   Fines for all should be substantial enough to make it not worth ignoring these laws.   

Therefore, we request that these changes be made before the next season of 2023.    (https://chng.it/5nf2snh8SK – Petition link)

If you live in Florida, this should concern each and every one of you. Please sign and share this petition. It costs you nothing. Although, Change . org adds a request for donations, it is not going to me, it goes to them. That’s how they make their money. A donation may boost the petition, but it is not necessary.

Thank you!

Debbie Rhodes

Tech Support Scammers

There is scum and then there are tech support scammers.

If you have never had the unfortunate event of being held hostage by a tech support scammer , being lied to, manipulated, and taken for your hard earned money, then you are lucky! BUT, don’t stop reading.

The only way to know if a company is a scam is when you are done talking to them. This saftey net helps them get an edge on you because you believe they are legit and they have your computer and phone tied up so you can’t search reviews about them. They also are very clever about making websites and fake reviews to fool you.

Here’s how a typical tech support scam works. You have a problem with your device and go searching on Google for a solution. You are on what looks to be a manufacturers site or a legitimate tech support site and they reach out to you with a pop-up or a slide-in, asking you if you need help and/or telling you to call a number. You call and reach the scammer. They do not tell you who they are. They want you to believe they are a reputable company. Or they will give you a familiar name like “Geek Squad” – we all know that is Best Buy but who you are talking to is not. It is the scammer.

They ask you what your problem is and reassure you that they can certainly help you with that. Then they ask if you will let them access your computer to fix the problem. You of course agree. When they get on your computer they start showing you things that indicate you have multiple problems. This is a ruse. All computers have these things but they do not affect your computer. They will repeatedly alarm you by these things. You get scared. But no worry, they can help you. They can install some software that you need that will take care of all those things. You don’t know that any of this costs you until the very end. Even the time they spent “fixing” your problem. They do not mention that there are costs involved. They may even offer you different time lengths of the software use, each increment being more expensive. NOTE: One scam does tell you it will cost you. They tell you that if you let them have control of your computer overnight they can fix is for a fraction of what Best Buy would charge you and you would have it the next day whereas Best Buy will have it for days. – Another ploy that makes you say “yes.”

[Read about scammers in India – https://www.bbc.com/news/stories-51753362 ]

When you agree to buy the software they will try to get you to write a check and put it on your scanner so they can get the payment. They will send you a copy of the transaction and have you write that you recieved services and software and agreed to the charge and sign your name. They prefer this kind of transaction because it is more successful for THEM. A credit card charge can be disputed and they know that. If they offer you PayPal and you say you want to use it, when they go to use it, they say it’s not working. So you resort to your credit card.

When you figure out that you have been scammed and you write your negative review about them on the BBB site, they will try to extort your refund by having you get rid of the negative review in order to get your refund. That’s why there are more positive reviews than negative about them besides the fake ones. Think about it – it is proven more people post negatives than positives. You must have knowledge about their tactics before you get taken. They are computer savvy, you are not. They have you over the barrel with that and your desperation to get your problem fixed. They have been doing this stuff for a long time and have all the bases covered that they can.

Another scam will appear on your screen (see above) in an alarming way and tell you not to turn off your computer and to call such and such number immediately. You can turn your computer off. But you must use the on/off button to do it. When it comes back up and it asks you if you want to restore the programs you had up, DO NOT or you will get that back. Your computer is fine. There is nothing wrong with it. It is a fear tactic. If you call the number you will get the tactics mentioned above to scam you.

If you do get scammed. Call your bank immediately. Change your card number. Begin a dispute with your bank in regards to the charge as soon as they say you can. Report your experience with the BBB and with the FTC – Federal Trade Commission. You can also report the scam to the State Attorney of the state that the scammers operate out of. I recommend you make your scam review wherever you can find to post it.

You can tell the scammers that you are going to dispute the charge and do all of the above and they may refund your money. This happened with me – twice. I’m sad to say that I was duped in both of the ways I mentioned. This is why I write this.

I am not mentioning any names of companies here because you just shouldn’t trust ANY online tech support business. Take your computer to someone local that is reliable.

Further reading – https://us.norton.com/internetsecurity-online-scams-how-to-recognize-and-avoid-tech-support-scams.html

I oppose black bear hunting in Florida – By Adam Sugalski

I OPPOSE BLACK BEAR HUNTING IN FLORIDA.

The 2015 Florida Black hunt changed many of our lives, forever.
This is my story below that I am emailing to the FWC commissioners.

What is your story and how did this hunt affect your life?
The commissioners need to hear it.
https://myfwc.com/con…/fwc-staff/senior-staff/commissioners/

In 2015, I embarked on a journey that would forever change me; I learned that the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) was considering a bear hunt for the first time in 21 years, and on June 24, 2015, in a devasting blow, the FWC voted to have a black bear hunt.

It was time for me to switch gears from protesting circuses, and greyhound racing, to now take on a government agency, the NRA, the SCI, and trophy hunters. With time being of the essence, I quickly got to work and created a campaign called Stop The Florida Bear Hunt (STFBH). Stop The Florida Bear Hunt would later be at the forefront of the anti-bear trophy hunting movement.

We staged a 14 city protest as a last-ditch effort to stop the hunt. The protest was on October 23, 2015, the day before the hunt took place. Our efforts did little to sway the hearts and minds of the FWC Commissioners who voted to have the hunt, and the following day the bear hunt began.

I headed to Lake City as a “Bear Monitor” at check station 17.
My objective was to document and report the number of bears brought into the check station. There were 33 check stations statewide — each station had bear monitors. The purpose of the bear monitors was to ensure that the FWC called off the hunt as soon as they reached their bear kill quota.

In my lifetime, I have witnessed horrible animal atrocities from investigating circus abuse to raiding illegal slaughterhouses. When I graduated with my degree in photography and design, I would have never thought I’d be using it to document horrific animal abuse.

Nothing could have prepared me for what I call the worst day of my life. Lifeless black bear corpses were brought in.
I will never forget the apathy the trophy hunters displayed for the lives they had just taken. Hunters laughed and celebrated their kills as if they had just won the lottery. They handled the bodies as if they were trash.

I was shattered to my core, numb, yet resolute and faithful to my convictions I carried on. The bear hunt was called off early due to the alarming number of bears killed on the first day of the hunt. In the aftermath, a total number of 304 bears were killed, but that doesn’t account for the bears that weren’t brought into one of the 33 check stations statewide.

Every single bear brought in to check station 17 left with a piece of my heart. Of all the bears I saw that day, nothing touched me as profoundly as the slain nursing mother bear whose swollen breasts were a reminder of the now orphaned cubs she left behind.

Public outrage grew as photographs and stories surfaced in the wake of the hunt. We weren’t going to let the FWC get away with another unscientific, undemocratic hunt. We put the pressure on them. They would soon learn that their actions had consequences that would forever change the dynamics of the FWC.

This time we were prepared for a battle, our previous 14 city protest had now grown to 28 cities. We scheduled it for the weekend before a final vote was made on whether or not to proceed with a 2016 Florida black bear hunt. Our protest garnered mass media attention, with hundreds of protestors showing up to each protest location. After the protests, we prepared for a trip to Apalachicola, Florida.

On June 22, 2016, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission voted 4-3 against a 2016 black bear hunt. They also voted to have staff gather more information so that they could again vote the following year on whether to hold a 2017 hunt.

This was a bittersweet victory as we knew the fight was not over and would be on the table again in 2017.

Our campaign, Stop The Florida Bear Hunt, continued to evolve and gain momentum putting even more pressure on the FWC.

On April 19, 2017, FWC Commissioners agreed to revamp the bear management plan and report back in two years, which came after a motion to hold a 2017 bear hunt was voted down 4-3.

The FWC also stated that there would be no hunt in 2019, that they would only revisit where they were at in the process of revising the bear management plan.

Following our victory for the bears in Florida, we changed our name from Stop The Florida Bear Hunt to Bear Defenders. Bear Defenders was created with a mission to end bear hunting across the U.S. and provide other states with the tools needed to take action against bear hunting in their State.

---

Adam Sugalski owns One Protest (www.OneProtest.org) and is an ardent animal activist  in Florida

Why FWC wants a bear hunt

To people who do not know the truth about bear hunting and what it is really about, you need to know.

The fact is that bear hunting is about the decline of hunting and FWC (Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission) scrambling to try to find more money for their coffers.

They are even trying to get women and children to hunt as the older hunters who kept the TRADITION of hunting, age out. Bored hunters are thirsty for a trophy bear and are whining about wanting to hunt them.

Hunters are lying about bears and trying to make people who don’t know about bears,  be so afraid of them that they will think that we need a hunt. We do not. Bears seen in neighborhoods are usually there because people have food attractants such as garbage, birdfeeders, dirty barbecue grills, pet food and the like that attracts them frm their natural habitat out into the neighborhood.

Bears rarely attack humans. Dogs are far more dangerous so are mosquitos.  Our bears give bluff charges to scare away a threat when it is protecting its cubs.

Get the FACTS before you sentence hundreds of innocent bears to a bloody massacre with lactating mothers and their cubs killed. Cubs not killed are left motherless and there is NO rescue for them.

It is FWC’s job to provide hunting opportunities for hunters. FWC commissioners are all hunters. It is a biased agency. Their definition of “conservation” is to let a hunted species recover so that they can be hunted leaving a token number. They do not have the same definition for it that the public has. And “harvest” is to “kill” not to gather. Unless you mean to gather the dead bodies.

PLEASE, educate yourselves and secure your attractants. Go to www. bearsmart.com or http://www.beardefenders.org and learn. Join a Facebook group that is a bear loving group so that you get the true facts, not what hunters tell you.

And remember to beware of FWC they only have their’s and the hunter’s interests at heart.

(Photo credit: Barry Vaught  Photography)

Saw Palmettos Importance to Wildlife

Saw Palmetto (Serenoa repens), is an important plant to wildlife and insects. Growing almost exclusively in the state of Florida, in lower Georgia and southeast Alabama.
All parts of the saw palmetto are used by some kind of wildlife or insects. They are eaten and used for cover and nesting.

More than 100 bird species, 27 mammals, 25 amphibians, 61 reptiles, and countless insects use saw palmetto as food and/or cover (Maehr and Layne 1996).

In the spring, the three-foot stalks bloom with small yellowish-white fragrant flowers. This attracts many insects including pollinators and the very important honey bee.
The leaves are a host plant to the palmetto skipper and monk butterflies.

In the fall the stalks give birth to berries that are high in fat content. Bears, foxes, raccoons, birds, and others eat the berries. The berries are essential for bears who have to fatten up before the denning season. Berries are on plants from August to October, the prime time for the bears to get their needed nutrition. Female bears must gain a lot of weight to be able to give birth. If they do not, the embryos will not implant and no cubs will be born.

These scrumptious berries (to wildlife), can be found in the local landscape, people’s yards and all over the state. You’d think that this would be enough for our bears and other wildlife and maybe for some wildlife it is, but with bears, they need to consume 20,000 calories a day during the fall.  And bears only live in certain areas, so for those areas, in particular, the berries and plants are especially needed.

The berries are believed to help benign prostatic hyperplasia. Studies have found both negative and positive results when compared to a placebo. Pharmaceuticals make claims that it does help, and thus they are a multi-billion dollar industry.
This industry has created a harvesting frenzy. The pickers glean as much as they possibly can to score big bucks from the buyers who in turn make a very handsome profit from the drug companies.

 

Pickers actually risk their lives to gather these berries. The eastern diamondback rattler makes a home in the bushes. Bears frequent them. Biting insects as well. Then there are the over 90-degree temperatures that bring heatstroke and dehydration. The plant leaves are sharp and cut, thus the name “saw” palmetto. There are also risks of alligators and water moccasins if near water. But for $1.00 to $2.00 a pound and at 100 pounds an hour, the risk is worth it for most pickers who have low paying jobs otherwise.

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It used to be that the berries were harvested mostly by migrant workers that didn’t have a crop to pick at the time of year that the berries are ripe, but since it was so lucrative, lots of folks jumped in. At one time the berries were bringing three to four dollars a pound.

Because of the importance of the berries to particularly bears, bear advocates fought to have some restrictions placed on the harvesting.
Thus the Florida Dept. of Agriculture put forth the following:

Pickers must now have a permit from the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.
Unfortunately, this permit is free and workers under a crew leader are not required to have a permit.

It is unlawful to pick on any private land without the written consent of the owner along with their contact information.

It is unlawful to pick on any public, state, city or county land unless permission is granted by the proper authority and submitted for approval on a permit application.

Buyers, transporters or processors are not required to have a permit, but they are required to have the following on their person at all times:

A bill of lading
A copy of the harvester’s entire permit, which now includes a second page that contains the permission letter(s).

Buyers, transporters, and processors are required to have a copy of the harvester’s entire permit, which now includes a second page that contains the permission letter(s).

From reviewing posts by pickers, they report many buyers do not ask from any of these things. So, they do not have them.

This presents more governance needed by law enforcement who already have their hands full just busting illegal harvesters.

Further, The stalks that they remove will not produce blooms the next spring preventing insects and bees from having them to use.
There is no limit to the amount of berries that can be picked.

Pictured above a local buyer readies his haul to take to Valensa, the pharmaceutical company that is one of the end buyers.  Local buyers set up at various locations and post their location on a Facebook page dedicated to getting this and other information out, like prices being paid. They often do not require any permits or permissions to be shown by the pickers. Some pickers and buyers use such websites to discretely contact one another for a rendezvous to exchange berries for money.  Keeping their location private is one way buyers provide a service for those who pick without permits or permissions.

So something needs to change.
The berry picking business is out of control.

Studies have not been done on the impact to wildlife yet, but it is believed that it may cause bears and others to go into neighborhoods searching for the food because of the lack of these berries.

The saw palmetto is listed as a commercially exploited plant. This doesn’t seem like it’s a big deal since it only requires getting a free permit, permission letter and then it’s a free for all.

Between 45 and 50 million pounds of berries are harvested each year in the United States, 80 percent of which is exported, according to estimates from Valensa International, a leading manufacturer based in Lake County. Most of these berries come from Florida.

For more visit on Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/Saw-Palmetto-Berries-For-Wildlife-109004287139364/

 

 

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FWC Policies Must Change About Helping Wildlife

EDIT NOTE:  Since writing this I have received some other information regarding the incident below.  FWC contacted me after I inquired about it.  Their version is not the same as the one given below.  I found out that the fawn was kept 6-7 days before FWC took it from this person.  The officer had the option of not giving a citation as they do when it’s only been a couple of days in possession, but since this had been a week he cited the man.  A neighbor evidently made an anonymous call to FWC regarding this.

If you find injured/orphaned wildlife you are supposed to call FWC and let them handle it.  The humanity in us makes us wants to help the animal ourselves and certainly it’s even more so when it seems urgent, as this did.  FWC says they will respond within two hours.  With all of us carrying cell phones these days, we should be able to contact them quickly.  I don’t know why this person said there was no response from them.  I can only  trust this is what happened.   If you are not licensed to handle wildlife or keep them, you can be fined.  It’s sometimes a toss-up but just know the risks.

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This is shared by permission:

 

Thursday 4/25/19
Approximately 3:30

A baby fawn was walking up to a lady by a busy roadway in Orlando. The lady attempted to call FWC multiple times. The mother deer was deceased nearby, she presumed to be hit by an automobile. The lady who called was advised by FWC to get the fawn to a fawn Rehabilitator. I had been in the area, the person was frantically trying to keep the deer from entering the busy road and getting hit. I offered to take it to a rehab place nearby, the person I knew was unable and unavailable to help because his recent fire and his facilities were destroyed by a recent fire. (Jim Bronzo) He advised me to take it to a rehabilitation facility in Brevard since I lived there I agreed to help. It was noted by both of us that the baby fawn’s ears were extremely curled, which is a sign of severe distress and needed immediate attention.

 

On my way home I bought temporary supplies, (receipt in hand) at Tractor Supply to begin nursing the starved, dehydrated, approximately 3-day old fawn.

Upon returning home the baby fawn was by this time going into shock from hunger and dehydration. The torque test revealed it was severely dehydrated. With having had a class 3 license in 2004, I knew what to do, act quickly on behalf of the fawn if it was going to make it to a rehab facility.

So I began using a Pedialyte liquid, (baby Gatorade) for hydration administered by an eye dropper. I administered 2-3 ml every 30 minutes by mouth to get it fluids. The baby deer improved slowly over the next 3 days and began to eat a 1 oz of baby kid (goat) formula by bottle. Using a warm washcloth stimulation, the baby deer finally urinated and had a bowel movement by the fourth day. Feeling the baby fawn was improving slowly, I researched several wild animal rehabilitation facilities nearby, left messages with no return calls. By the fifth day, she was eating 3-5oz of formula, every 3-4 hours, readily from the bottle.

Also during this time, my other half had been admitted to Holmes regional hospital for asthma attacks associated with pneumonia. So I was quite busy holding the homestead together with my 3 children and my 84-year-old demented mother, and a distressed baby deer.

By the 6th day, the baby fawn was ready to be placed at a rehab facility, but no return calls had been received, my other half had returned from the hospital on Wednesday evening.

 

On the 7th day while I was at work, May 2, 2019, an FWC officer showed up at the residence, around lunchtime. (Officer Delano) Unaware of who reported the deer, my significant other showed him the baby deer, who was kept on a screened back porch. The baby deer was kept isolated there, with two bedding areas available for her comfort. It had a piece of indoor/outdoor carpet. She was isolated in hopes of a successful return to the wild. Officer Delano requested her to sign over the deer, which she cooperated fully. Tara also donated the bottle and kid formula to the rescue the deer would be taken. Tara had prepared a large transport box with hay for the 45-minute ride to the rehab facility. I, Paco, had a conversation about how I obtained the deer because Tara was unaware of the facts of the deer situation. Officer De Lano requested that I call him back upon returning home from work, which I complied with 2 times, De Lano sent FWC officer Hatfield at 7:30 pm to have me sign the deer release form and deliver a violation with fine of $331. 😕

The baby deer was taken to Creature safe place, in Ft. Pierce Florida, with Wynn Burns, who has stated, I did an excellent job rehabilitating the fawn, and the fawn was doing very well. She recommended I be placed on her list, to become a licensed independent rehabilitation person by obtaining a class 3 license.

I am making a $100.00 donation to Creature safe place on behalf of the deer. She stated she would write a letter of what a good job was done rehabilitating the baby fawn. Please share this story. It’s the ONLY way this crazy stuff is going to stop.

This was the officer, he was young polite and professional according to my other half, however, inexperienced being 3 months with FWC, I only spoke with him on the phone and answered all his questions. My other half signed a release for the fawn, the officer instructed me to call him when I returned home, I did so twice only to have another officer deliver a citation to me at 8 o clock at night, also after several attempts to text the officer on where the baby fawn was taken. Not one return text or call concerning the safe delivery of the baby fawn. I had to call 6 different places in Ft Pierce, the officer had told me during the phone conversation that the only rehabilitation facility is in Ft Pierce. But he didn’t even know the name. 🤦🏽‍♀️ The second FWC Officer did seem rather embarrassed having to deliver a citation.

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There needs to be a policy change regarding people helping orphaned and injured wildlife.  Obviously, this fawn was of no threat to the man who helped it.  It’s not like he was trying to help a full-grown injured bear.  People run across injured, sick, orphaned, entrapped, etc. wildlife all the time and sometimes they must act to save the life of the animal.  FWC cannot always be there at the time to do anything to help the animal and as most of us know they often choose to euthanize rather than to save an animal.

Please email FWC’s commissioners to ask them to inform people better about these rules.  The majority of people do not visit the FWC website and are not educated about handing orphaned/injured wildlife.  https://myfwc.com/contact/fwc-staff/senior-staff/commissioners/