A US judge allowed the first black bear hunt in 10 years in Florida to continue in December, despite the lawsuit by the animal group Bear Warriors United against the state government to prevent the death of more than 170 of these animals.
Although she requested more documents and arguments, Judge Angela Dempsey rejected a temporary blockade against the bear hunting season that was scheduled from December 6 to December 28 by the Florida Government, which justifies it by alleging that there is an overpopulation in the state, with about 4,000 animals.
With this, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) will be able to continue with its plan, which includes 172 permits for the same number of hunters, each with the right to kill a bear, in what constitutes the first legal hunt for these animals in the state since 2015.
The organization Safari Club International (SCI), which accompanies the FWC, celebrated that the ruling supports its arguments: “robust” biology, “responsible” management of wildlife, and “the rights of hunters who finance conservation.”
“SCI is proud to have intervened in defense of the Commission and the state’s management plan based on science. Anti-hunting groups tried to stop the hunt and failed,” the group said on its social networks.
But the associations that fight for the animals reiterated their rejection of the figures provided by supporters of the hunt.
More information: Florida reopens bear hunting after a decade of ban
The Bear Defenders association cited that 300 Florida black bears die each year in traffic accidents, but denied that this implies a population growth of these animals, but rather that it is related to the “rapid increase” of the state’s human inhabitants.
“Bears killed during the Florida black bear hunt will increase the total number of animal deaths instead of addressing the root cause of road mortality,” he said on Facebook.
Regulated hunting of black bears was in effect between 1930 and 1994 in Florida, where it made a brief and controversial return in 2015, when there was an “unjustified massacre,” according to the plaintiffs.
That year, hunters killed 304 bears in just two days, causing FWC to end the program ahead of schedule, according to Bear Warriors United.
With information from EFE
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