ORLANDO, Fla. (WESH) – Florida’s bear hunt is now underway.
Over the next three weeks, and for the first time since 2015, hunters are expected to take several dozen black bears statewide.
Bear advocacy groups have protested, even taking the state to court to try to put a halt to the hunt, all to no avail.
Seminole County-based Bear Warriors United is offering to pay hunters who have taken permits $2,000 to not kill a bear.
The Sierra Club of Florida said dozens of its own members, as well as coalition allies, have secured 52 of the available 172 permits.
Sierra Club Florida Director Susannah Randolph said they are hopeful the FWC will enforce the law when it comes to monitoring how many bears are taken.
“The people who approved the hunt were political appointees, that’s why we were calling on Governor DeSantis to step in and stop the hunt,” she said.
She said they have heard some chatter online from hunters talking of “settling the score” with the non-hunters.
She also noted that killing more than one bear would be poaching, which is illegal.
“The FWC political appointees have really taken away a lot of the tools for the scientists to actually follow the science and do right for what this species needs to survive for future generations,” Randolph said.
Jason Howard, a hunter who spoke to WESH in November, talked to the station again this weekend to say he did not have any luck.
“I don’t trophy hunt. When I deer hunt, I don’t hunt for antlers. It’s for meat. I enjoy deer meat, wild hog meat, turkey meat and I hope to enjoy bear meat as well,” he said.
Randolph said she is concerned about the future, when the FWC said dog hunting of Florida black bears will be allowed.
“It’s extremely cruel, not just to the bears but to the dogs, you lose dogs in the course of bear hunting, but even our U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi prosecuted dog hunters when she was the attorney general for Florida,” she said.
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