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.