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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...

WEST MILFORD — More than 100 demonstrators, including a few wearing bear costumes and carrying stuffed bears, protested Saturday on Route 23 at the corner of Canistear Road to oppose the upcoming bear hunt. Chanting "Kill the Hunt. Not the bears," and holding signs saying "Bullets are not science," the protesters stood on both sides of the highway encouraging motorists to honk their car horns in support. The six-day hunt will start Dec. 5 and was approved last week by state Environmental Commissioner Bradley Campbell as a method to control the state's bear population. The last bear hunt was two...

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.

TRENTON, N.J. -- New Jersey wildlife officials are considering a plan to create bear-free zones as a way to manage the state's surging black bear population. The unusual approach would make urban and other densely populated areas off-limits to bears and restrict the bruin population in regions such as southern New Jersey, where the bears are far less plentiful than in the state's mountainous northwest region. "Most people agree, you don't want bears in areas like Hudson County, Union County and Middlesex County _ all urban areas with no real habitat for bears," Len Wolgast, a wildlife biology professor and...

There was a frightening bear attack in New Jersey - caught on videotape. Sleeping campers were startled when a bear ransacked their campsite and bit someone inside a sleeping bag.

VERNON, N.J. -- A township police officer fatally shot a 100-pound black bear after he and another officer responded to a woman's call that two bruins had broken into her kitchen. Margo Spilotras had just finished taking a shower when she heard crashing and crunching sounds coming from the back of her home around 2:30 p.m. Tuesday. Clad only in a towel, Spilotras ran to the kitchen and found two bears -- a 400-pound mother bear and one of her cubs -- had slid open a screen door and were inside the home. The mother bear fled out the door...

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...

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...

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...

<p>TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — The debate over New Jersey's first bear hunt in more than three decades is continuing as opponents challenge how significantly the hunt will effect next year's bear population. State wildlife officials have reported that there were 328 confirmed bear kills during the six-day hunt that ended Saturday evening.</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...

<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>

<p>After decades of assuming that civilization is bad for wild animals and nature -- as seen on PBS -- humans are learning that things can go the other way. It's not a pretty sight.</p> <p>Consider New Jersey, where, if things go according to plan, some 7,000 hunters will take to the woods next week and kill up to 500 bears. The rationale for the state's first bear hunt in more than 30 years is simple enough -- too many bears. In 1995, there were 285 complaints about bears plundering birdfeeders, getting into the garbage, menacing pets and generally behaving like bears in territory claimed by humans. Last year, there were some 1,175 such complaints.</p>

<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>