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BY BOB HOLT
NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COOM
The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection says the amount of bears populating Sussex, Passaic, Warren, Morris, Hunterdon and Somerset counties has doubled from 1,600 in 2005 to over 3,200 currently. They say a bear hunt is the only way to limit potential run-ins between people and bears.
The Animal Protection League of New Jersey feels differently. The Wall Street Journal reports that the animal-rights activists are seeking permission in court to stage daily protests of the hunt.
Doris Lin, an attorney for the Animal Protection League of New Jersey, said the DEP denied their protest request on Friday after an official had given them verbal approval to protest at the Franklin bear check station. The DEP gave the group two alternative sites that they declined due to a lack of visibility there. They also want to document how many bears are killed.
The DEP offered the APL protest permits for Whittingham Wild life Management Area and the Pequest Trout Hatchery, but the Franklin station sees more hunters with their bears.
Lin told NorthJersey.com, “People are willing to get arrested to protest against this denial of their speech rights. I think they’re trying to hide our message and make us seem disorganized by changing the location.”
"New Jersey is an ideal habitat for bears to live with unchecked population growth," Larry Katz, a professor of animal sciences at Rutgers, said to NJ.com. Katz says the climate in New Jersey, along with farm fields, forests, and opportunities for foraging mean that bears can reproduce heavily.
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According to WPIX, the DEP estimates there are about 3,400 black bears in New Jersey, one of the highest black bear populations in the entire nation.
New Jersey calls the hunt necessary to hold down the bear population, but activists say it is cruel. According to the DEP, in the 2010 bear hunt, 20 percent of bears killed were considered nuisance bears. The 2011 hunt is set to last through Dec.10.
According to NJ.com, New Jersey held bear hunts in 2003, 2005 and 2010 — which saw 328, 298 and 592 killed. The bear hunts were stopped by state courts in 2004 and 2007.
