an unbearable subject part II but....

I realize I'm rehashing one of my old threads on this, but in the past few days, the bear hunt in NJ has gotten loco. While I have read about an incident some yrs ago about a baby and a bear, when was the actual last time anyone has read about anyone being attacked in NJ?

On an average, the typical NJ brown/black bear can attain the size roughly of maybe a saint bernard, and weigh in at least 475 lbs, which is pretty much lightweight for the species.

So what's your opinion once again on this subject, ladies and gentlemen?
Do the bears really need to be hunted down so aggressively or is this quite literally a case of overkill?

You've got to keep them contained below a certain population or they'll continue to encroach on human settlements - wild bears and humans cannot mix.

Starvation/disease comes with overpopulaton also. As cold and inhuman as it can seem, containment and population control is really the best thing for them.

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I agree. Although I hate to see animals killed just for sport, an over population of bears needs an ever increasing quantity of food. And, bears will go where ever the food is, including breaking into homes (seriously).

not really, but unfortunately you gotta give the rednecks something to do, and it's too icy for nascar. if you think bears can make a mess of your trash cans, just try to imagine the widespread devastation resulting from hordes of gun-toting trailer-troglodytes given nothing to shoot at.

Shee-yoot far, Chuck. Yew mean to say I cain't tote mah trailer to th' track an' watch them good ol' boys smack 'n wreck each other while me 'n mah buddies takes pot shots at bars an' squirrels an' such in the infield?

A boy cain't have no fun no more.

They should be sleeping.

Hunting doesn't appeal to me much but as long as the population of game animals stays healthy, balanced and sustainable, I've got no problem with it.

SG

I don't know that I disagree entirely over that there, Pecker. True the numbers should controlled, but by eliminating them? You want control, push for fixing bears, or relocating, not shooting them.

Until you can prove to me that the bear you're going to kill has done something personally to me, or my family/friends, taking up arms to control them is not the best answer.

There's a problem with coyotes killing livestock from time to time in rural Ontario, and I heard a retired farmer telling about a community meeting they had to see what could be done.

Some local farmers wanted to have the bounty increased to encourage a cull in the coyote population in their area. A woman who had recently moved to the area from the big city of Toronto raised her hand to offer her unique solution.

" Why can't we humanely trap them and neuter the males and then release them?" she asked.

A grizzled voice from the back of the room piped up: "Hell lady — they're eating my sheep — not fucking them!"

:D

Chuck:

I think the answer lies in the fact that overpopulation of game animals, including predator types, means that the weakest of the lot inevitably get forced out of the wild and into human territory. The result is that the wild animals have no choice but to prey on humans, their pets, their gardens or their garbage. Its sad, but the inevitable result for the wild animal is either: starvation, being hit by a car, or a bullet after it attacks a jogger or consumes a house cat. I think all these fates are worse than controlled hunts fostered by state fish and game departments.

SG

bears deers and gators need to be hunted

the deers dont have wolves to hunt them so they are spreading like wild fire.

in florida we started to hunt a small amount of gators just because there are so damn many of them now plus we keep building more and more into the everglades.

plus deer and gator are tastie
bear tastes bitter

plus what better feeling is there then killing something bigger then you?

... which is clearly the gators' fault ...

ummm ... when you're toting a high-powered rifle whereas the bear has nothing but the hair on its ass, that's pretty fucking pathetic.

I say give the bears military-grade body armor and shoulder-mounted rocket launchers, that ought to even things up a little. then hunting them would be a worthwhile challenge.

I rarely agree with you there, Dr Rock, but that that last bit definitely gets my agreement no questions asked.

Perhaps it ain't the bears and deers and gators that need to have population control enforced upon them...

15, or even 10, years ago, "outside the beltway" in the DC area was "out in the sticks." Now, you have to go at least 20 miles outside the beltway to find anything that is not a congested, overpopulated area, and 40 or 50 miles south or west to find anything still rural. A human can survive in a structure with a mere 500 square foot footprint (out in my area, 3-level townhomes are the norm...) and do all their foraging for food in a centralized grocery store. A wild animal just simply cannot survive with that little ground space. If our population continues to grow, it will HAVE to spread out and sprawl somewhere - and every new subdivision is cutting back the survival space of the flora and fauna. So our answer is to thin out their populations, so that ours may continue to grow. Makes sense to me. Everyone knows that the US is already dangerously underpopulated. Please, help save our species, and have more babies.

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Yes I do believe it is appropriate to cull certain animal populations in New Jersey. There have been numerous incidents (see www.wpvi.com)
of animals roaming into residential areas and attempting to enter homes or attack people in their back yards in Central and Southern New Jersey. Most recently, in Effort PA a family discovered a Black Bear living under their front porch, and while the Bear did not attack- if it felt threatned and or agitated it might possibly attack some unfortunate human.