Naples animal rights activists are planning a roadside protest Saturday in opposition to a statewide black bear hunt being proposed by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
The FWC held a meeting in Ocala in May, where public comment was overwhelmingly against the bear hunt.
The wildlife commission’s staff presented potential changes to bear-hunting rules, including allowing dogs to corral the bears, baited stations to draw the animals to a location where hunters waited, and the use of arrows to kill the animals. The commission gave preliminary approval to the changes.
Supporters of the hunt, including some wildlife managers, argue it is a scientifically sound method for controlling a growing bear population to reduce the risk of bear-human interactions.
“The resurgence of the Florida black bear is not just a victory for conservationists; it’s a win for all Floridians,” said Rodney Barreto, the FWC’s chairman. “Hunting is a biologically sound method to slow population growth, resulting in a healthy and well-managed Florida black bear population for the future.”
The FWC will take its final vote on the hunt during a meeting Aug. 13-14 at the Florida Public Safety Institute in Havana, a town of 1,500 residents near the Georgia state line north of Tallahassee.
Opponents, including Bobbie Lee Davenport, an organizer of Saturday’s upcoming protest, said the changes in rules the FWC approved in May make the event anything but a hunt.
“This is not hunting, this is not sport, this is animal abuse. The worst of the worst,” she said. “It would allow dogs, it would allow baiting. It would allow bows and arrows. It's very horrific.”
Saturday’s protest against the bear hunt will take place from 10 a.m. to noon on the sidewalk at the northwest corner of the intersection of Tamiami Trail and Immokalee Road in Naples.
Similar protests are being held simultaneously in about a dozen other cities throughout Florida.
Regulated hunting, including species such as deer, bear, and rabbits, has long been a routine tool used in American wildlife management to control overabundant animal populations. The practice has a well-established history and is grounded in scientific principles of wildlife management.
The hunt is not intended to eradicate bears or drastically reduce their numbers — it’s a conservative, targeted effort to thin what the state claims is an animal approaching overpopulation, which could otherwise lead to resource shortages, increased human-wildlife conflicts, and ecological imbalances.
Animal rights advocates, who often argue that hunting is unnecessary and cruel, oppose hunting on ethical grounds. They firmly believe the hunt could be avoided by using non-lethal tools, such as ads to remind people to secure trash cans to avoid attracting bears near people.
Ethical objections remain a valid contribution to the discussion of whether to hold a regulated hunt, but ethics fall within the realm of personal values, while thinning a population can be an ecological necessity.
Opponents also worry the first hunt in a decade will turn out like the last one a decade ago: stopped early due to poor planning. More than 300 bears were killed, including at least 38 females with cubs, which probably didn’t make it without their mother’s care.
The 2015 hunt used a derby-style system where anyone could buy permits and stay at it until a quota was reached, incentivizing hunters to kill the first bear they encountered.
This hunt caps participation at 187 hunters, each of whom will have won a chance via a lottery to pay between $100 and $300 for a permit to kill one bear. Better oversight will avoid the killing of any females with cubs, according to the FWC staff.
Also, bears will only be allowed to be hunted in areas of Florida where the FWC believes the animal’s population is strong enough to withstand the losses, such as the 55 bears that will be allowed to be killed in the Big Cypress region in Southwest Florida.
Other numbers and places include 68 bears in the Apalachicola region west of Tallahassee, 46 in areas west of Jacksonville, and 18 in an area north of Orlando.
The FWC will take its final vote on the hunt during a meeting on August 13-14 at the Florida Public Safety Institute in Havana, a town of 1,500 residents near the Georgia state line north of Tallahassee.
If approved, which is expected, the hunt will take place from Dec. 6 to Dec. 28.
Amber Crooks, an environmental policy advisor with the nonprofit Conservancy of Southwest Florida in Naples, outlined several problems her agency has with the hunt in a letter to the FWC, asking that it vote not to proceed with the hunt.
The conservancy’s objections to the special rules being allowed during the event are numerous. They include using dogs to corral the bears, using bait to draw bears to a location where they can be shot while eating what was left to lure them there, and ensuring that this time the hunt ends immediately after the 187th bear is killed.
“The 2015 hunt, by all accounts, was not successful; the overharvest and amount of rule-breaking takes (deaths) resulted in the public losing trust in the agency and made international news,” Crooks wrote. “The general public does not support a bear hunt. Please do not reopen the Florida black bear hunt.”
Environmental reporting for WGCU is funded in part by Volo Foundation, a nonprofit with a mission to accelerate change and global impact by supporting science-based climate solutions, enhancing education, and improving health.
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