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Before the state approved its last bear hunt in 2005, hundreds of farmers, homeowners, animal rights protesters and hunters voiced their opinions in a final, raucous hearing that had to be moved to the State Museum auditorium in Trenton to accommodate the crowd. The scene was far different today, when the state Fish and Game Council voted unanimously — and with considerably less fanfare — to recommend a six-day bear hunt for northwest New Jersey in December. Gathering in a small room in Monmouth County, the council met before just 20 people, most of them state employees. Three people spoke...

Associated Press TRENTON, N.J. -- A group favoring a New Jersey bear hunt as a way to control the bruin population is considering filing a lawsuit against the state because it has not issued hunting permits, a lawyer with the group said Tuesday. Gov. Jon S. Corzine has not yet decided whether to approve a hunt this year. Douglas Burdin, a lawyer with Safari Club International, a national hunting and conservation group, said Tuesday that a lawsuit "probably will be filed within days," seeking to make the state issue the permits. "The bear hunt is currently authorized under New Jersey...

VERNON -- Four animal rights activists involved in a confrontation with hunters at Wawayanda State Park during last year's bear hunt were found guilty Thursday of harassment. The most prominent, Angela Metler of Vernon, drew a 40-day jail term. Municipal Court Judge C. William Bowkley Jr. found that the 49-year-old Metler, Terry Fritzges, 57, of East Windsor, Janet Pizsar, 53, of Milburn, and Albert Kazemian, 49, also of Vernon, were determined to disrupt the state-sanctioned bear hunt when they entered the park on the morning of Dec. 7. Besides sentencing Metler to jail time, Bowkley handed her and the others...

ISSAQUAH - The Issaquah man who claims he shot a black bear in self-defense near his home Monday night is now under investigation by the Department of Fish and Wildlife for being a felon in possession of a firearm and for hunting a bear out of season. King County Sheriff's deputies, officers with the Department of Fish and Wildlife, and agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms served a search warrant Wednesday at Aaron Enright's home in the rural High Point neighborhood near Issaquah. They seized the 10-gauge shotgun he used to shoot the bear, a .22-caliber rifle...

A black bear chased, caught and mauled a bicycle rider on a mountain trail in Canada's oldest and most popular national park, and was shot and killed when it refused to leave the area, a warden said. The biker, Greg Flaaten, 41, a Web administrator for the town of Banff, was being treated for severe arm injuries at Foothills Hospital in Calgary following the attack, and reconstructive surgery in the biceps and triceps area was scheduled Monday. Authorities initially feared Flaaten might lose his arm, but that concern was eased when a key artery was found to be intact, maintaining...

A 29-year-old Farisita man suffered bruises and possible nerve damage to his neck and shoulder this week when he tangled with a black bear on a private ranch near Stonewall about 25 miles west of Trinidad. Harold Cerda stopped to use an outhouse on the ranch. While he was away from his car, a bear climbed through an open window and started to eat Cerda's lunch that was on the front seat. As Cerda came out of the outhouse, the bear was walking in his direction and took a swing at Cerda, knocking him down. Michael Seraphin, spokesman for the...

A black bear was caught in a forest recreation area Sunday and was being sent to a veterinary school to determine if it was the same animal that attacked a family, killing a 6-year-old girl. Authorities found a bear in the same trap where they detected paw prints on Saturday in the remote Cherokee National Forest Chilhowee Recreation Area... The bear, which was captured near the site of the attack, looked to be the same weight as the 350- to 400-pound bear that attacked a mother and her two children on a trail in the recreation area on Thursday... The...

Authorities hunted Friday for a black bear that picked up a 2-year-old boy in its mouth and mauled his mother, critically injuring them before killing the child's 6-year-old sister. Witnesses told authorities the bear picked up the boy in its mouth while the mother and other visitors tried to fend it off with sticks and rocks, said Dan Hicks, a spokesman for the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency. When the bear attacked, the girl ran away, authorities said. Rescuers found the girl's body about 100 yards down the trail from the falls. A bear was standing over her. "Allegedly, after the...

Six animal rights advocates, arrested in December during a protest at Wawayanda State Park on the final day of the 2005 black bear hunt, went on trial Tuesday in Vernon Municipal Court. The six -- Lynda Smith, Elenor Hoffman, William Crain, Catherine McCartney, Kristen Sondej and David Stewart -- are all charged with obstruction for allegedly jumping a plastic fence that park police had set up to corral demonstrators, then sitting down on the pavement before being led away in handcuffs. The trial began after all six pleaded not guilty before Municipal Court Judge C. William Bowkley Jr. The state...

THE bear hunting season in New Jersey has long been over, but it looks as if the controversy will probably never end. The hunt is coming under fire again in the Garden State as anti-hunters have introduced a bill that would ban bear hunting, fund the animal rights agenda and strip the wildlife agency of its management authority. Assemblyman Michael Panter, D-Red Bank, introduced AB 525, a bill that would take away the Fish and Game Commission's and Dept. of Environmental Protection's authority to regulate bear hunting. Bear management would instead be placed in the hands of a Black Bear...

About 280 bears were killed in New Jersey's six-day hunt aimed at thinning out the burgeoning population, which ended with more than 100 protesters waiting for hunters to emerge from the woods with their kills. The hunt ended shortly after dusk Saturday with fewer bears killed than the 328 bagged in 2003, according to preliminary figures. Black bears, once near extinction in the state, are now a common sight, menacing people, scampering through yards and rummaging in trash. "I believe we'll now see a reduction in nuisance complaints, a reduction in serious complaints and that we'll get more information about...

Bear hunt begins with at least 54 kills, tempers high By JOHN CURRAN The Associated Press VERNON, N.J. - Braving freezing cold and irate animal rights activists, camouflage-clad bear hunters hit the fields and forests here Monday, taking aim at a species whose recovery in New Jersey has gone from conservation success to emerging public safety threat. Black bears have rebounded from near-extinction to become familiar sights across the nation's most densely populated state - rummaging through trash, menacing people and scampering through yards. With residents' complaints mounting, New Jersey's second bear hunt in 35 years was approved as a...

Animal rights extremists gone wild By Cam EdwardsNov 30, 2005 Animal rights activists are going to court to try and stop the New Jersey black bear hunt, scheduled to take place next week.  As much as I hate to do it, I applaud these activists for operating within the bounds of the law, even if the ideas they promote exist outside the bounds of common sense.    Of course, for every one of these activists who operate inside the law, there are others who have no qualms about violating the law; threatening violence, committing acts of vandalism, even advocating death...

NEW Jersey's second bear hunt in 35 years will begin in December, but it doesn't sound as if it will go off without the usual outcry from animal rights groups, some of whom have threatened to cause some problems. Hunters will be able to shoot bears over six days starting Dec. 5. The hunt is to take place in a roughly 1,600-square-mile territory in the north of the state. "I think that public safety and sound wildlife management are the winners," said state environmental chief Bradley Campbell, who approved the plan after scuttling last year's hunt during a power struggle...

On November 14, 2005, DEP Commissioner Bradley M. Campbell approved the Comprehensive Black Bear Management Policy for New Jersey. The document was drafted by the NJ Fish and Game Council and subsequently revised after extensive public comments and a public hearing. The policy meets the mandate and requirements established by the NJ Supreme Court in its most recent opinion on black bear management.

| Push is on for a new bear huntFriday, September 9, 2005 By KATHLEEN CARROLLSTAFF WRITER There are too many black bears in New Jersey, and allowing annual hunts is the best way to stabilize their numbers, according to a New Jersey Fish and Game Council report released Thursday.In its comprehensive Black Bear Management Plan, the first such policy analysis such 1997, the council reported that contraception and relocation are too unproven, costly and slow."Problems associated with black bears will continue to grow unless the population is stabilized," the report cautioned. "A tool that will quickly reduce the population...

Associated Press TRENTON, N.J. - The state's environmental chief has final say over whether a bear hunt can take place in New Jersey, not the council that planned the hunt, the state's highest court ruled Monday. The decision by the state Supreme Court gave Environmental Commissioner Bradley Campbell his second victory in the most recent spat over bear hunting in the Garden State. Bradley successfully opposed a hunt late last year after the Fish and Game Council had approved one. He was bolstered by a high court decision that said the state needed to adopt a comprehensive bear management policy...

Buoyed by the defeat of a planned black bear hunt this year, one animal rights group has announced it has a statewide hunting ban in its sights. The newly formed Animal Protection Political Action Committee hopes to craft a network of more than 50,000 voters to oppose pro-hunting legislation and candidates. It's creation comes less than one week after the state Supreme Court halted the six-day bruin season, ruling Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Bradley Campbell had the authority to stop it. "The (National Rifle Association) and all these other groups pull together all of these people who are 100...

Associated Press TRENTON, N.J. -- New Jersey Environmental chief Bradley Campbell overstepped his authority when he deemed state-owned land off-limits to bear hunting, a lawyer for a hunting group told a state appeals panel Thursday. "I don't think he has the authority to close lands to hunting once a season has opened via the game code," Safari Club International attorney Anna Seidman said. "He is closing lands for the purpose of stopping the hunt." But a lawyer for the state called Campbell "a steward of state resources" and said part of the commissioner's job is to manage wildlife. "This is...

Department of Environmental Commissioner Bradley Campbell's attempt to "take control" of wildlife management in the state could cost New Jersey millions in federal aid. In a letter released yesterday, the U.S. Department of the Interior threatened to withdraw $2 million in annual wildlife aid to New Jersey because Campbell has violated federal regulations by interfering with a planned bear hunt authorized by an... The letter was made public during a hearing yesterday on a lawsuit to stop Campbell from closing state-owned land to bear hunters. The Interior Department contends Campbell is improperly "attempting to take control" of wildlife management authority...

The encounter last weekend between three bears and two Boy Scouts at a camp in Warren County was more harrowing than originally reported, as the bears pawed at the teenagers for an hour, bit one of them and attempted to bite the other, according to a report by state wildlife investigators.The boys, who were later vaccinated for rabies, cowered on a rock as they fended off the two 60-pound cubs and the mother bear at the Yards Creek Scout Reservation in Blairstown on Saturday night, wildlife investigators said.One of the boys was bitten twice by a cub. The animal first...

Judges weigh conflicting laws in Jersey bear hunt dispute Wednesday, November 10, 2004 BY BRIAN T. MURRAY Star-Ledger Staff A state appeals court reserved decision yesterday on a lawsuit filed by two sporting groups and three New Jersey hunters who want to force a bear hunt early next month. The six-day hunt, scheduled for Dec. 6-11, was approved in July by the autonomous state Fish and Game Council. However, Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Bradley Campbell took the unprecedented step last month of refusing to issue permits. That action led to the lawsuit.

It has been described as a battle between North and South, between urban and rural, between Old Maine and New Maine. At issue? A bear referendum, which would outlaw hunting of Maine's black bears with the help of stale jelly doughnuts and other "bait," leg-hold traps, or hound dogs. The campaign - which has played upon fear and repugnance, and questioned traditions, ethics, and what it means to be a true sportsman - will appear as a question Tuesday on the ballot in this battleground state. Supporters say that luring bears with bait while hunters wait in place, trapping them,...

Judge orders NJ to accept bear hunt permits; DEP chief closes public lands to hunt Wednesday October 27, 2004 By JEFF LINKOUS Associated Press Writer TRENTON, N.J. (AP) A state judge on Wednesday ordered the Department of Environmental Protection to accept permit applications for a December black bear hunt. The order by Judge Jane Grall of the Appellate Division of Superior Court, comes in response to Environmental Commissioner Bradley M. Campbell's continued opposition to the hunt. Campbell maintains the applications were not authorized and are therefore invalid. The order gives Campbell until 4 p.m. Friday to respond to the Oct....

N.J. to test drugs to curb rising bear population Sunday, October 10, 2004 Seeking alternatives to hunting, the state is set to begin testing a series of contraception and sterilization drugs on a captive black bear population living in the safari park at Six Flags Great Adventure in Jackson. Scientists plan to round up about a dozen black bears that live in the safari park on Oct. 19. Females will be injected with the vaccine PZP, a contraceptive. PZP, which stands for Porcine Zona Pellucida, is a protein that wraps itself around the egg in the uterus and prevents fertilization....

<p>Last year in Maryland, hunters killed about 200,000 mourning doves and 87,000 deer. Squirrels and rabbits died by the tens of thousands.</p> <p>Nobody held a protest or filed a lawsuit. Instead, it was a typical year in a state that, despite its urban and suburban centers, has more than 100,000 licensed hunters.</p>

Unwilling to be stymied by foot-dragging on the part of the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), the state Fish and Game Council is pressing forward with its plan to have a second year of bear hunting in New Jersey.

State Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) commissioner Bradley Campbell made it clear earlier this year that he was against a black bear hunt in New Jersey in 2004. The problem he faced was that rules and regulations regarding hunting and fishing are legally within the realm of the independent state Fish and Game Council. And, despite Campbell's opposition, the Fish and Game Council included a second bear hunt in its new game code. The code says would-be bear hunters need to submit their applications for a permit by Sept. 30.

The Commissioner of the New Jersey D.E.P. has decided to run interference for his puppetmaster, Governor James E. McGreevey of New Jersey, in blocking a bear hunt, despite a vote of 6-1 by the New Jersey Fish and Game Council supporting such a hunt. The members of said council probably know far more about this subject than either the Governor or his mouthpiece both of whom apparently are willing to sacrifice the welfare and safety of the majority of New Jersey's citizens for the benefit of a handfull of animal rights wackos. If the bear population in that state can't...

ASSEMBLY, No. 2634 STATE OF NEW JERSEY 211th LEGISLATURE INTRODUCED MAY 3, 2004 Sponsored by: Assemblyman Anthony Chiappone District 31 (Hudson) SYNOPSIS Prohibits black bear hunting for five years and until study is issued by Fish and Game Council; appropriates $95,000. CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT As introduced. An Act concerning the hunting of black bear and making an appropriation. Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey: 1. a. Notwithstanding any law, rule, regulation, or provision of the State Fish and Game Code to the contrary, there shall be no open season nor...

New Jersey lawmakers are considering a measure that would give nearly $100,000 in state funds to the Humane Society of the United States, the nation’s largest anti-hunting group. Senate Bill 1219, sponsored by Joseph Vitale (D-Woodbridge), would give $95,000 to HSUS to study ways to eliminate bear hunting in the state. The measure would set a dangerous precedent, allowing animal rights groups to dictate wildlife public policy and using taxpayer dollars for it. The HSUS opposes hunting, fishing, and trapping and invests its time and money to eradicate such activities. The bill would also prohibit the hunting of black bears...

VERNON, NJ-September 18, 2003 — Vernon police fatally shoot a black bear after it twice broke into the basement of a township home this week. The three-year-old female bear first entered the home early Tuesday by breaking a glass door. A neighbor saw what happened and notified the home's owner, Rosemary DeLorenzo, who fled with her two children. The neighbor then scared the bear off with an air horn and the family returned home. But the 181-pound bear returned several hours later when DeLorenzo was home alone, and she called police. The bear left when the officers arrived and then...

“Death is more universal than life; everyone dies but not everyone lives.” – A. Sachs Almost everyone knows about New Jersey’s infamous Bear hunt this past winter. Any way you look at it, it appears to be a simple method of population control. However, there were some New Jerseyans who thought this hunt was very “controversial”. I don’t know why a number of people think it’s a conflicting issue; many states allow hunts like this go on all the time. So what makes New Jersey so special that hunting bear becomes a “controversial” issue? Are we trying too hard to...

<p>The folks at the Hermione Museum in Tallulah, ever mindful that Teddy Roosevelt helped make their town part of his presidential lore with a 1907 bear hunt, will open an exhibit related to the nation's 26th president May 1.</p> <p>To celebrate the establishment of the Roosevelt Room at the Hermione, the museum on April 30 will host "An Evening with Tweed," a dinner with remarks from the president's great-grandson, Tweed Roosevelt of Boston, who frequently speaks about his famous ancestor.</p>

Is the New Jersey bear hunt a good idea? Yes 40% No 60% Total Votes: 202

<p>TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — The state's first bear hunt in more than three decades entered its third day Wednesday with hunters hoping that warmer temperatures might tempt some bruins to leave their dens.</p> <p>Hunters also had an extra 33,000 acres to scout in the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area after a federal judge on Tuesday lifted a temporary ban on bear hunting there.</p>

One day soon we will be reading about a bear sighting in New York City. A Manhattan bear is a distinct possibility, should the prospective rogue prove to be as venturesome as those coyotes who have been observed crossing various bridges into Gotham and dodging late-night taxis on their way toward Central Park. Nor can one rule out an ursine visit to Brooklyn, although this would require a rare Two-Bridge or Bridge-and-Tunnel Bear. No, the initial encounter is most likely to occur in the Bronx, that borough being contiguous with the mainland's Eastern corridor, where the black bear has staged...

Judge Turns Down Environmentalists, Allows N.J. Bear Hunt Expanded to Federal Recreation Area By Krista Larson Associated Press Writer TRENTON, N.J. (AP) - A judge on Tuesday lifted an order that had closed a sprawling national recreation area to bear hunters, as the state's first open season on the animals in more than three decades went into its second day. On Monday, the first day of the new bear season, hunters bagged 61 bears, the largest weighing 498 pounds, the state Department of Environmental Protection said. Officials hope the hunt will reduce the state's population of an estimated 3,200 bears...

Keith Meyers/The New York Times Wildlife officials at a weigh station check a 200 female bear killed by a hunter. Keith Meyers/The New York Times Protestors outside the bear weigh station. Keith Meyers/The New York Times Harry McDole and Jim Aumick Jr. killed a female bear last weekend. VERNON, N.J., Dec. 8 — Thirty-three years after New Jersey's last bear hunt, hundreds of hunters armed with shotguns and muzzle-loading rifles tromped through a foot of snow on Monday in search of some of what could be as many as 3,300 black bears thought to be living in northwest New...

<p>New Jersey opened its first bear hunt in 33 years Monday with hunters trekking into snow-filled woods before dawn as animal rights activists protested nearby.</p> <p>Hunters' trucks and sport utility vehicles lined entrance roads to Wawayanda State Park, where hunters were allowed to go out a half-hour before sunrise, said Conservation officer Tom Keck.</p>

12/07/03 - Posted 11:23:58 PM from the Daily Record newsroom Snow may stymie bear hunting By Rob Jennings, Daily Record Jerry Flannelly will awaken at 5 a.m. today to usher in the start of New Jersey's first bear hunting season in 33 years. By 6:20 a.m., the 60-year-old Mount Arlington resident plans to be encamped on a friend's farm in Andover Township, hoping to land a bruin with his 12-gauge shotgun. Flannelly, though, expressed doubts about his prospects Sunday afternoon, saying the weekend storm and freezing temperatures would hinder hunters this week. "I think the snow is driving (bears) into...

To the pro-hunt residents of northwestern New Jersey, the black bears have become too close, too bold and too dangerous. The bears, they say, routinely roam backyards and sometimes barge into houses looking for food — usually household garbage, but occasionally pork chops and brownies. The bears wander around playgrounds and bus stops, frightening children. And they have killed pet rabbits, goats and sheep. To those weary, and wary, of living with black bears, New Jersey's first bear hunt since 1970 is long overdue. "We do have a definite problem with the bears, and we need to do whatever is...

<p>The state yesterday barred nearly 300 youngsters from next week's bear hunt in a move officials said was designed to protect the young hunters from potential confrontations with protesters.</p> <p>DEP employees began telephoning the 278 boys and girls, ages 10 to 15, who had applied for permits for the hunt, telling them they could not participate even though they had already attended mandatory safety courses earlier this fall. DEP Commissioner Bradley Campbell never mentioned his revocation order during an hour-long conference call with reporters yesterday, during which he repeated the DEP's position that the hunt is necessary to help reduce the growing bear population, estimated to be as high as 3,200.</p>

(Columbus) – A growing string of evidence suggests that New Jersey Gov. James McGreevey may bow to animal rights pressure and cancel the state’s upcoming black bear hunt, according to the nation’s principal sportsmen’s advocacy organization. “The McGreevey administration has time and again displayed its sympathy for the anti-hunting cause,” said U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance Vice President for Government Affairs Rob Sexton. The Alliance has been in business since 1978, fighting anti-hunting issues, and tracking the decisions of elected officials sympathetic to the anti-hunting movement. Sexton explained that all signs point to McGreevey siding with anti-hunting activists against wildlife experts, public...