New Jersey Governor Chris Christie is still not listening to residents who do not want black bears hunted in December.  His agenda of allowing the scheduled hunt to proceed flies in the face of a statistical report he has chosen to ignore.

Non-lethal Methods Proven More Effective

Rutgers University professor of chemistry, Edward Tavss, researched bear complaints registered with the state and compiled a detailed analysis.  His 2005 report concluded the non-lethal method of bear control was more effective in reducing human-bear interactions than killing bears.  This is accomplished by simple, appropriate garbage control. 

Bears are attracted to the smell of garbage and will forage when the opportunity presents itself.  With bear-proof garbage receptacles, the bear is unable to open it and simply moves on.

Tavss’ report concluded “… the number of complaints has been statistically significantly declining over the last seven years, consistent with using the non-violent approach.”  He recommends terminating the hunt option.  “…an approach that has been proven not to be effective.”

Complaint Numbers in Question

The NJ Department of Fish & Wildlife (NJ DFW) claim an increase in black bear complaints for 2009 justifies approval of the hunt scheduled for December 6 – 10.  But in an exclusive interview with NBC New York, Tavss told reporters the numbers are actually duplicates.

He exercised his right to OPRA (Open Public Records Act) the reports — all 4,700 of them — and painstakingly reviewed each one.  What he found were hundreds of duplications.  The same complaint with the same date and reference number, each time.  When Tavss excluded the duplicate reports, he discovered the actual number of complaints continued to decrease.  Read his recent report.

This should be good news for the bears, but Christie is still planning on proceeding with the hunt.  A call to Governor Christie’s office finds the reason Christie is going ahead with the hunt is because he believes the bear population has increased and a hunt is therefore justified.  Political doubletalk. 

Animal Activists Keep Advocating

Animal Protection League of NJ held a rally October 16 protesting the upcoming hunt.  Close to 100 people came out to send a message to Governor Christie – “stop the hunt!.” APLNJ claims the reason Christie approved the hunt is payback for support of pro-hunters who helped him win the election.

Still, Governor Christie and the DFW are not listening to NJ citizens.  Public comments about the scheduled bear hunt received the largest number of complaints than any other issue to date.  Seventy percent (6,484) were against and 2,803 in favor.

What You Can Do

December is fast approaching, but people can still make their desires known.  APLNJ and the BEAR Group encourage New Jersey residents to continue to contact Governor Christie at 609-292-6000 and let him know your opinion.  You can also fax a letter to Christie at 609-292-3454.

Some points are:

• In four years, (NJ DFW) has only written EIGHT garbage violations…and is not working with bear country towns to help them implement garbage control.
• By refusing to do their job and enforce garbage control, they are breaking the law: the Black Bear Feeding Ban (NJSA 23:2A-14)
• They have ignored the hundreds of photo documentation of uncontained garbage. 
• Tell them you are against the black bear hunt and expect the governor to listen to his constituents.
• When you call, ask for Constituent Services. Do not allow them to transfer you to the Division of Fish & Wildlife.

It is imperative Christie receive as many letters and phone calls as possible.  Take a few minutes and help NJ black bears.  It’s a matter of life and death.

** And be sure to sign the Care2 petition.**

Another Way to Help

Send letters to the editor at major New Jersey newspapers in opposition to the bear hunt.

Key points to make when you write:

• The NJ DFW is a pro-hunting agency that profits from the sale of hunting licenses. They are doing everything they can to sabotage humane bear management efforts.
• The only proven way to reduce bear nuisance complaints is by properly storing garbage—this is also the law 
• However, NJ DFW refuses to enforce our garbage control law. (In 4 years, only EIGHT violations were written.) By ignoring garbage control, they are in violation of the Black Bear Feeding Ban Law: NJSA 23:2A-14
• The Division of Fish & Wildlife’s negligence causes bear incidents to occur…they then use the inflated statistics to justify bear hunting.
• The majority of bears killed in the 2005 hunt were mothers and their cubs. This is a recreational hunt that will do nothing to address the need for public education and garbage control enforcement.

You can email your letters to:

Bergen Record: lettertotheeditor@northjersey.com

Daily Record: letters@dailyrecord.com

New Jersey Herald: newsroom@njherald.com

Star Ledger: eletters@starledger.com

Trenton Times: letters@njtimes.com

Trentonian: letters@trentonian.com