[Travelassie]

Originally Posted by Arcenal352

How about we stop all of this building of homes in the woods? It used to be that when one moved into the woods, one knew the risks involved. My uncle has a house on 10 acres in the middle of the Seminole/Wekiva Forest. When he moved there, he understood that there would be a danger of bears, snakes, coyotes, and whatever else lives in the woods. He was willing to take the risk.

Most people, sadly, fail to think that way. If you don't want to live with jungle animals, don't move in the jungle. Shouldn't be rocket science.

And when you take away the wooded areas for development, these critters invade the concrete jungle that replaced the woods.

[floridarebel]

People hunt. It's life. Get over it.

[trobesmom]

Originally Posted by arleigh

People that feed the bear are the problem.
This invites the bear into the neighborhood and then become a problem.
Beyond that, black bear did not use to be aggressive to humans, but that has changed in the last couple of years.
Like a welfare queen receiving entitlement ,predators that are protected, begin to see humans as prey ,not another predator.
To assume animals are stupid, is stupid. they do teach one another, and their young .
Animals, like humans, challenge a potential foe ,no different that a bird challenging a cat ,or squirrels challenging a car. Kids challenge with the skate board and other sports . Not for any thing more than to over come the fear, or better their piers . Is it stupid? -yes do they fail? yes.
Bear are pushing their boundaries and the state is allowing them to be culled and pushed back.
Bear meat is not thrown away, and the hide is prized as well , I don't see the problem.
As for cubs, they fall prey to other bear as well, as mountain lions, and wolves too, whether the mother is there or not.
Look at it this way . those cubs have learned humans are dangerous, hopefully that will help them keep their distance.

I believe we humans are pushing the boundaries. Enough should be enough, but it never is.

[trobesmom]

Originally Posted by floridarebel

People hunt. It's life. Get over it.

If you read my previous post, I never said I was against hunting, although I personally wouldn't do it. This whole bear hunting thing was done the wrong way, and there were lots of illegal kills. So no, I will not get over it.

[Happiness-is-close]

Originally Posted by Arcenal352

Or perhaps we just stop building more highways in their habitat?
If not that, at least lower and closely monitor the speed limit? Like they do in the FL Keys to protect Key Deer?

I'm sorry, but I don't want traffic to be worse than it already. Humanity has bent over backwards for animals enough. There are plenty of places these creatures can go that are not in our space.

[trobesmom]

Originally Posted by Travelassie

The spin was on the social media and on liberal rags like the NY magazine, the Orlando Sentinel- did you miss the lines in that article identifying it as "opinion"? And the spin IMO smacked of pure partisan politics, those sources hate Rick Scott, hate the GOP controlled state legislature and use every opportunity they can find to attack both.

Apparently you missed the part in the story where the FWC made this a controlled hunt- only in specific areas and limited to a total of 325 bears, for a total of one week, and they stopped it after two days when the the bagged bear count was close to the total number. Hardly a free for all, or a desire by the state to wipe out the black bear population. I doubt seriously they would have even had this hunt had there not been so many complaints by human residents of the bears invading their "space" and threatening their safety. And the hunters were NOT allowed to kill cubs ( that is another of the embellished stories courtesy of the liberal press, or social media). Hunters were allowed to hunt and kill only bears weighing 100 lbs or more, bears killed were inspected by FWC and fines were levied against anyone who had killed an bear weighing less.

I do agree with you that the problem is too many people, and their demands for housing and infrastructure continue to invade the bears ( as well as other Florida wildlife species) natural habitats, leaving these species nowhere to go. Yet more and more people decide to move to Florida for myriad reasons, buy that property that was once part of the bears' habitats. You mentioned in your first post on the thread that friends of yours were hoping to move to Florida, and you were trying to dissuade them. In light of your concern for the effect of this general influx of humanity to the state on the plight of Florida's wildlife, I hope you will be successful in convincing them not to move here.

I saw pictures of dead cubs and small bears that were murdered. No embellishment there. As I've said previously WE are the ones encroaching on THEM.

And god I hope I can dissuade some to not move here. Hopefully this travesty has helped.

[trobesmom]

Originally Posted by Happiness-is-close

I'm sorry, but I don't want traffic to be worse than it already. Humanity has bent over backwards for animals enough. There are plenty of places these creatures can go that are not in our space.

How about we go where we're not in their space. We're the ones with the ability to reason after all. We're the only species who can purposely decide not to encroach.

[Bobdreamz]

There are better ways to deal with this issue! We can use stun guns and relocate these bears or we can can give stun Guns to people who neighbor them then call the Florida Wildlife Fish & Game!
Apparently we have enough "good" shooters to meet the Quota in 2 days. There are better places to relocate bears than to slaughter them!
Our state has the Everglades and the Ocala National forest.

[trobesmom]

I'm with you, Bob. There aren't that many bears in the first place. Shouldn't be difficult to relocate the few who come in contact with people.

[NoSnow4me]

Anyone who suggests that you hit a bear with a stun gun has obviously never been face to face with one. I would have a hard time imagining a worse idea, unless it's to run up and punch it in the nose.