Free Republic

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...