A heads-up for bears: The hunters are coming
NorthJersey.com
Wednesday, August 10, 2005
By RICHARD COWEN
STAFF WRITER
New Jersey's black bears moved out of the political crossfire and back into the hunter's crosshairs on Tuesday, as the state Fish and Game Council voted unanimously to allow a six-day bear hunt this December...
The bruins' fate was sealed by a sharp, 60 percent increase in the number of nuisance complaints lodged against them this year - and by a few, all-too-close encounters between bears and hikers recently, raising fears that New Jersey had too many bears, too many people and too little habitat.
---OH. NUISANCE COMPLAINTS! Oh well then, shoot 'em all ...
East coast cities, such as those in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, used to post signs that said "COMMIT NO NUISANCE HERE." They meant "Don't pee on this wall." But they didn't kill you if you did. *
And with the increase in bear activity has come several encounters with humans that have increased worries.
On July 13, a camper sleeping in High Point State Park in Sussex County was bitten on the leg by a bear that tried to drag away his sleeping bag.
--- One of them bit him on the leg! Better Kill 'em all.
Just last weekend, state conservation officers had to destroy two bears who had wandered onto campsites looking for food - one at Camp Mason in Blairstown, the other in Frankford.
"You have to manage wildlife; you can't just let it manage itself," said John Messeroll, a member of the Fish and Game Council.
---"You can't just let it manage itself." The same might well be said about the sleazy little Graftettes at Fish and Game who regard Real Estate as the only form of Protected Wildlife.
The rules of the hunt are almost identical to the one that New Jersey held in 2003, when hunters killed 328 bears...
As in 2003, the state plans to make up to 10,000 permits available free of charge to hunters who complete a one-day bear hunting seminar.
---10,000 PERMITS?
---ONE-DAY SEMINAR?
The only good news here is the prospect of all those drunken New Jerseyans, loaded for bear as it were, shooting each other.
Of course, there may be more than a few Earth First! activists getting permits and heading out there singing, "If you go out in the woods today, you'd better not go alone..." and hunting with a different kind of nuisance in their sights. Or so one can hope.
*With the possible exception of Sodom and Gomorrah. According to Mark Twain, the total destruction of the Cities of the Plain was punishment for peeing on the wall. Twain considered it unfair and excessive, especially since the women who were killed weren't even physically capable of committing that crime. Link
Wednesday, August 10, 2005
By RICHARD COWEN
STAFF WRITER
New Jersey's black bears moved out of the political crossfire and back into the hunter's crosshairs on Tuesday, as the state Fish and Game Council voted unanimously to allow a six-day bear hunt this December...
The bruins' fate was sealed by a sharp, 60 percent increase in the number of nuisance complaints lodged against them this year - and by a few, all-too-close encounters between bears and hikers recently, raising fears that New Jersey had too many bears, too many people and too little habitat.
---OH. NUISANCE COMPLAINTS! Oh well then, shoot 'em all ...
East coast cities, such as those in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, used to post signs that said "COMMIT NO NUISANCE HERE." They meant "Don't pee on this wall." But they didn't kill you if you did. *
And with the increase in bear activity has come several encounters with humans that have increased worries.
On July 13, a camper sleeping in High Point State Park in Sussex County was bitten on the leg by a bear that tried to drag away his sleeping bag.
--- One of them bit him on the leg! Better Kill 'em all.
Just last weekend, state conservation officers had to destroy two bears who had wandered onto campsites looking for food - one at Camp Mason in Blairstown, the other in Frankford.
"You have to manage wildlife; you can't just let it manage itself," said John Messeroll, a member of the Fish and Game Council.
---"You can't just let it manage itself." The same might well be said about the sleazy little Graftettes at Fish and Game who regard Real Estate as the only form of Protected Wildlife.
The rules of the hunt are almost identical to the one that New Jersey held in 2003, when hunters killed 328 bears...
As in 2003, the state plans to make up to 10,000 permits available free of charge to hunters who complete a one-day bear hunting seminar.
---10,000 PERMITS?
---ONE-DAY SEMINAR?
The only good news here is the prospect of all those drunken New Jerseyans, loaded for bear as it were, shooting each other.
Of course, there may be more than a few Earth First! activists getting permits and heading out there singing, "If you go out in the woods today, you'd better not go alone..." and hunting with a different kind of nuisance in their sights. Or so one can hope.
*With the possible exception of Sodom and Gomorrah. According to Mark Twain, the total destruction of the Cities of the Plain was punishment for peeing on the wall. Twain considered it unfair and excessive, especially since the women who were killed weren't even physically capable of committing that crime. Link
posted by Saintperle at
9:38 AM
