Wildlife advocates across Florida are preparing for a wave of peaceful protests on Saturday in opposition to a proposed black bear trophy hunt under consideration by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
Organized by the group Bear Defenders and coordinated through the nonprofit One Protest, the statewide demonstrations are scheduled from 10 a.m. to Noon in 11 cities across Florida, from Jacksonville to Fort Myers.
The protests are timed to take place only days before the FWC is scheduled to vote August 13-14 on approving rules for a three-week bear hunt in December.
The proposed rules would include a lottery-style permitting process and up to 187 bears being killed in four areas of the state. The rules also would include guidelines to encourage hunters to kill male bears.
George Warthen, the commission's chief conservation officer, told the News Service of Florida that the proposed hunt — the state's first since 2015 — is an additional method to manage bears as they coexist with humans.
"When we look at game species across North America, there's not a single game species that has gone extinct or come close through regulated hunting," Warthen said. "Instead, we see more money, more attention and a lot more benefits for that animal. And this can be a tough conversation to have. And so the why, for Florida, becomes we're one of the only states that is not participating in regulated bear hunting in states that have abundant bear populations."
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Bear Defenders and supporting groups argue that the hunt is both unnecessary and ecologically harmful. They point to growing public opposition, including more than 56,000 people signed a petition calling on the FWC to abandon the proposal.
"Establishing a bear hunting season will not stop bear-human interactions," notes the petition. "This is because the problem is not bear overpopulation; it is a failure of humans to secure their trash and remove bear attractants."
Saturday's statewide protest organizers say their goal is to send a unified message urging FWC commissioners to reject the proposed hunt.
The exact number of black bears in Florida is difficult to determine, but FWC estimates in recent years place the population at around 4,000 statewide — a recovery from historic lows in the 1970s, when the species was listed as threatened.
The public can email their comments about the proposed bear hunt in December to BearComments@MyFWC.com.
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