Both sides campaign as bear hunt nears

Both sides campaign as bear hunt nears

By TOM BELL Associated Press Writer
November 24, 2003, 9:41 PM EST


TRENTON, N.J. -- With the state's first bear hunt since 1970 just two weeks
away, state officials stepped up efforts Monday to demonstrate the need for
hunters to control the growing population of the animals.

At the same time animal rights groups continued a campaign to stop the hunt,
including asking federal officials to ban bear hunters from the Delaware
Water Gap National Recreation Area.

For his part, Environmental Protection Commissioner Bradley Campbell
gathered residents, police and other officials from the northern part of the
state to relate stories of dangerously close calls with black bears.

They told tales of living in fear of the bears, which have broken into 58
homes this year in the state.

Children had to be taught emergency measures to take since bears have showed
up at school bus stops, officials said. One of the rules is to carry lunches
by hand rather than stuffing them in a backpack.

"The bear might be after your peanut butter and jelly sandwich, but if it
grabs your backpack you might get dragged away with it," said Bill Shelton,
superintendent of the Stillwater School District in Sussex County.

Nick Civitan, who lives on a small farm in Frankford Township in that
county, said he came out one day and saw a bear eating one of his goats.

"I can't take my 2-year-old daughter outside to play because we are
constantly on guard for bears," said Civitan's wife, Kari.

As approved by the state Fish and Game Council, the hunt is scheduled for
Dec. 8-13 in the area north of Route 78 and west of Route 287. It is
supposed to help reduce New Jersey's bear population, which is estimated to
be as high as 3,200. About 6,700 hunters have applied for licenses to
participate.

Those at Campbell's event denied that housing sprawl has led to the problems
with bears and said efforts to change the behavior of the animals by
frightening them away have not worked.

But Jeff Tittel of the New Jersey chapter of the Sierra Club, which opposes
the hunt, said new home building is responsible for the increase in bear
encounters.

"We are losing 5,000 acres a year of bear habitat to sprawl," Tittel said.
"It's hard to sell condos to people from New York City with bears going
through the neighborhood. That's what this is really about."

Animal rights groups have taken their fight to the superintendent of the
Delaware Water Gap. The groups said a recent ruling by a federal judge that
barred a pheasant hunt at the Cape Cod National Seashore in Massachusetts
due to possible impact on the park's environment raises many of the same
legal issues in New Jersey.

The groups claimed a hunt would also violate a number of federal
conservation laws that protect the 67,000 acres of the park.

Stu Chaifetz of the New Jersey Animal Rights Alliance said there are also
concerns about hunters going into densely populated areas with the
high-powered rifles it takes to bring down a bear.

"We don't want to see any children shot," Chaifetz said.

The rules for the bear hunt do not allow rifles, only slug shotguns or
muzzle loaders, said Jack Kaskey, a spokesman for the Department of
Environmental Protection. The same types of guns are used in deer hunts, he
said, and the bear hunt will be held in the same areas.

Hunters are not allowed to fire within 450 feet of a building or hunt on
private property without permission, Kaskey said.

The other side, the Association of New Jersey Rifle & Pistol Clubs, urged
state officials Monday to not cancel the hunt.

"Do not cave into pressure from the anti-hunting groups," a letter sent by
the association to officials said. "They have politicized what should be
considered purely a safety issue."
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/ny-bc-nj--bearhunt1124nov24,0,93354.story?coll=ny-ap-regional-wire

-- 
James Ehlers

Outdoors Magazine
www.outdoorsmagazine.net