JerseyJim

This is the kind of warped thinking we are up against here in NJ..
Bears getting agency's help in their move south
Published in the Asbury Park Press 06/14/05
BY STUART CHAIFETZ

The Asbury Park Press reported June 6 that the New Jersey Division of Fish and Wildlife removed a black bear from Woodbridge and relocated him to a wildlife area in Millstone and Upper Freehold. This revelation confirmed what many of us had long surmised: The division was deliberately taking bears from the north and moving them to the south.

Hunters would have us believe that bears showing up in Monmouth and Ocean counties walked there from Sussex or Passaic counties, through the most congested and developed land in the nation and somehow bypassing 4 million to 5 million people. No more must we listen to these ludicrous prevarications. A source no less than the director of the division has confirmed that bears don't make the journey through natural means, but instead get to the south by being driven there.

To understand why the division has done this, you need to understand what the division is - a state agency dedicated to providing recreational killing for hunters. Not only are most division biologists hunters themselves, but their salaries are dependent upon the sale of hunting licenses. This conflict of interest is as clear as it is astounding - the state agency that should be protecting wildlife instead profits from their slaughter.

With bears, however, it is this and more, for both the division and the hunters were outraged when the bear hunt was called off last year. They are doing everything they can to make sure there will be a hunt this year. To do this, they want to generate as much controversy as possible. It is for this reason alone that they are moving bears south.

Manipulating the public is how the division operates. Earlier in this decade, the division manipulated data to cause a bear hunt, and it is doing the same thing now by transferring bears to Monmouth County.

Jack Spoto of Freehold, president of the United Bowhunters of New Jersey, wrote a commentary in which he intentionally misled people about bears. ("Politicians to blame for migrating bears," June 8.) In our entire recorded history, black bears have never killed anyone in our state. To imply or state otherwise is to lie. This is even more shameful when you realize it is the hunter who is more dangerous than the bear.

To paraphrase Spoto regarding bears, hunters have been responsible for many injuries and deaths. Do you know what an armed hunter is afraid of in New Jersey? Nothing.

This last point was tragically proven two months ago. A hunter in Vernon (which is bear country) got into an argument with his girlfriend. In his condominium, which was decorated with numerous mounts of animals he had killed, he placed his shotgun to her chest and pulled the trigger. This was not the first time a hunter has killed. As long as their ideology remains - that problems are to be solved at the barrel end of a gun - it will not be the last one.

I reject the creed of the gun and the bloodshed that ensues from it, especially when it comes to how we manage our wildlife. This is why I support the sterilization studies under way that will allow us to keep bear populations in check without killing them.

A few months before the bear hunt in 2003, while visiting friends in northern New Jersey, I met a bear who lived peacefully with her neighbors. It was a magnificent experience - not just that I was within a few feet of this wonderful animal but that the residents there loved her, and loved having her as a neighbor.

On one of the last days of the hunt, she was shot in the back by a hunter. Wracked with pain, she made her way home to the people she knew would care for her. They found her hiding in a tree, her blood pouring down the bark. They gave her the medical care needed to survive. She lived, but how many others, shot, wounded and crippled, died torturous deaths all because some greedy hunter wanted her skin and body as a trophy?

This is the nature of hunting. This is why it must ever be fought against, and why we must not allow another bear hunt.

Stuart Chaifetz is director of the Animal Protection Political Action Committee, Cherry Hill.

adams

Antis are IDIOTS! If there was a bear hunt last year they might not have been a need to transport bears to an area with habitat but low population numbers(the southern portions of NJ). These people just don't understand they can't have their cake and eat it too. Bears reproduce and with few natural predators their population goes unchecked. Without proper management bears need to be transported to sutiable habitat and yes that might be in the southern part of the state.

I'm glad they pulled the plug on bear hunting last fall. The result is bears have been introduced into habitat that had a low population where they can thrive, procreateand afford the sportsmen of NJ bear hunting for generations to come.

The antis lack of foresight and sound scientific information for which to base their campagins have proven good forNJ sportsmen in the long run. Give an anti a loaded gun and they will shoot thenselves with it in time.

Enough preaching to the choir for today

Bill Yox

Ill tell you exactly what antis are. They are broken up into two distinct groups. One is the misled, means-to-do-well type, who just has no clue, but does have a "pulpit" from which to crow from. The other type is the anti-everything type. These people hate. They are people with a piece of their person missing. They lack heritage. They lack a conscious. They have an empty space that they must fill with emotion in whatever way they can grasp. They hate government, until government can support their latest craze. They hate movements. They hate establishment. They say they love animals, well, they just hate life. Most importantly, they hate themselves. They are confused, misplaced, empty people with holes, filled with resentment..

The excuse for an author who penned the article that jersey Jim posted is a classic example. He wants to hate so bad that he writes that crap and doesnt even follow it through. You mean, they actually moved those bears from one area to another? Yes, because places like Sussex are over-ridden with bears, naturally at first, because of your stupid anti-hunting bullsh*t in the first place! Let the Fish and Game folks allow those bears to further migrate naturally and your 4 to 5 million people between Sussex and Manmouth WILL be seeing bears! The F and G people could do themselves a giant favor by just doing their jobs, and thats monitoring the bear numbers, implementing bear harvest numbers and seasons, and move forward instead of looking for public or political feedback or support. The rising bear numbers are all the support needed.

As for the hunter who killed his girlfriend (uh, was she an anti by any chance???) thats a L-O-N-G shot of a theory to suggest that, because he had mounts and hunting equipment its no wonder he did it. I suppose the thousands of drug related killings EACH DAY are done by the inner city drug groups on their way out to hunt game on weekends? Like I said, the author doesnt even have the brains to think his crap through. Which is why we must ignore the crap they spew, and at the same time educate ourselves. Its not a right to hunt. Its technically a right to bear arms, but its still and always will be a PRIVELEDGE to hunt. Its a heritage. We do not need to be ashamed of it, or to feel the need to justify it, but we also do not need to fight amongst each other either. Crossbows vs bows, baiting vs no baits, dogs vs no dogs, guided hunts, high fence hunts, etc. We waste our energy and become fragmented from these foolish fights, while the antis move in. When will we learn?