Jeers to New Jersey officials for allowing another year of the wanton slaughter of hundreds of the state’s innocent black bears. This week marks the first segment of the bloodbath and then the trophy hunt will continue Dec. 8–13. A total of 11,000 permits will be issued for the 2025 season!

We at Friends of Animals are still disgusted that 472 bears were killed during the 2024 bear hunt.

In December 2022 when New Jersey’s immoral, unnecessary black bear trophy hunt was reinstated by the state’s Fish and Game Council as a so-called emergency rulemaking, we did everything we could to stop it. After protesting the hunt at a public meeting following Gov. Phil Murphy’s call for action and betrayal of black bears, we took our legal arguments all the way to the New Jersey Supreme Court.

A ruling that the emergency rulemaking violated the law was made in November 2023, but by then the 2022 hunt was over. And the Fish and Game Council has since formally adopted a Comprehensive Black Bear Management Policy, which authorizes hunting until 2028.

It is sickening that officials in New Jersey continue to mislead the public into thinking slaughtering some bears would stop instances of habituation. The agency has been inconsistent with its messaging, often acknowledging public education is critical in reversing the trend that makes bears less afraid of people.

The truth is success in preventing bears from snooping around neighborhoods and losing their wariness of people depends on changing human behavior. A cruel, random, recreational bear hunt will never stop bears from being curious, opportunistic feeders.

In fact, there’s evidence hunts increase human-bear interactions: A 2022 study found that even with significant hunting, “…there was no concomitant reduction in interactions or incidents and, in fact, these were higher in areas with the new spring season relative to control areas.”

And a newer study released in Oct. 2024, Do Lethal Control Interventions Reduce Human-Wildlife Conflict? Evidence from Black Bears in British Columbia, reveals killing black bears does not reduce interactions.

The truth is that scientific studies show there is a weak correlation between the population of bears and bear human interactions—incidents are more closely correlated with human behavior. 

That is why the sane solution is nonlethal black bear management, which keeps bears away from unnatural food sources and lowers complaints and incidents. An agency so concerned with “public safety” should require the use of bear-resistant trash cans, ban baiting by hunters statewide and support the new wildlife feeding ban legislation.

Seminole County, Florida adopted its wildlife ordinance in 2016, requiring residents to secure refuse in a shed, garage or other secured structure on non-collection days, and not to place it curbside before 5 a.m. on collection days. A bear-resistant container (BRC) must be used if trash is put out earlier. 

Residents were supplied BRCs in 2017. A 2023 study showed the use of BRC reduced human-bear interactions (HBI) by 54%, especially bears eating garbage (reduced to 0 %). Public calls to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission regarding core HBI (garbage raiding, property damage, home entries, crop/livestock predation) declined 40%.

Please text New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy at 732-605-5455 or call 609-292-6000 and tell him you oppose the unbearable, pointless slaughter of black bears. Tell him that 0.8% of New Jersey’s residents who hunt shouldn’t be terrorizing black bears for fun! (you can email him at https://nj.gov/governor/contact/all/) New Jersey needs to roll out systemic nonlethal measures such as passing wildlife feeding ban legislation, prohibiting bird feeders March-November and requiring residents who live where bears live to use bear-resistant trash cans.