Critters in the news: Bear hunts and snake hunts and lawsuits
A bear hunting season has been approved over protests, snake hunts continue to be a joke, and, speaking of (not very funny) jokes, the politicians behind the bear hunts are being sued
Despite outcries from conservationists and animal lovers—not just in Florida but worldwide—the state of Florida is about to resume bear hunting.
Why?
Yeah, that’s in dispute.
The last time bear hunting was allowed in the state in 2015, it quickly became a slaughter with more than 300 black bears killed in just two days forcing an early halt to hunting season.
Among the bears killed were at least 38 lactating females, so the death count was almost certainly higher as the mothers’ cubs likely starved to death.
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, meeting in the remote hamlet of Havana in the Florida Panhandle, recently approved the start of a new bear hunt to last 23 days in December.
They’ve put a cap on how many of the creatures can be “harvested” — a euphemism for shot to death— at 187, although how that will be enforced is an open question given how wildly out of control the last hunting season became.
Hunters will be permitted to use bait to lure the animals out of hiding to make shooting them less arduous on the hunters, and dogs will be permitted to roust them from hiding.
An organization called Bear Warriors United has sued to block the hunt for, among other reasons, using out-of-date scientific data to support the need for the hunt. The organization asserts that the hunt is based on “stale facts from a 2014-2015 bear population study and is directly contrary to the FWC’s own 2019 Bear Management Plan and staff recommendations.”
Katrina Shadix, the founder and executive director of Bear Warriors United, told The Daytona Beach News-Journal:
We’ve only 4,000 bears left in the state of Florida. They are already being killed off by car strikes, poaching and over development and loss of habitat. This trophy hunt would be the final nail in their coffin.
Bella Schwartz, who helped do research for the lawsuit, testified at the hearing:
There’s over development. Stripping bears of their habitat and then saying that there’s an overpopulation of bears and killing them is not the right thing to do … Let’s be realistic. These hunters aren’t wanting to eat the bears, right? This isn’t just a bear hunt. It’s a bear trophy hunt.
The hunt was backed by, among other interests, the Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation, which receives funding from the National Rifle Association.
The great Florida snake hunt
Speaking of wild Florida critters, results from the latest Florida Python Challenge are in.
More than 850 snake hunters from 33 states competed for the $10,000 grand prize—all designed to rid the Everglades of the invasive Burmese pythons that have infested the River of Grass.
It’s estimated that there could be more than 100,000 of the reptiles in Florida, although they are elusive and getting an accurate count is challenging.
The annual hunt didn’t do much to reduce those numbers:
A mere 195 pythons were killed.
Which is about as effective as trying to rid the Everglades of mosquitos by sending people out with fly swatters.
Related story: Robot rabbits to fight invasive pythons
Florida Weekly: Bear hunters should have to hunt naked, on foot, wearing only loincloths
J.C. Bruce, journalist and author, is the editor of Tropic Press. He holds dual citizenship in the United States of America and his native Florida.
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ICE does the same thing to lactating humans!