![\"Florida](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Bear-Florida-Black-Bear-by-Barb-Elkin-via-iStock-for-WMNF-News.jpg\")
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tFlorida black bear. By Barb Elkin via iStock for WMNF News.<\/p>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tFlorida black bear. By Barb Elkin via iStock for WMNF News.<\/p>\n
by Craig Pittman, Florida Phoenix<\/a> When I was growing up here in Florida, everyone revered science. We looked to high-IQ scientists to tell us how to fly to the moon, how to transplant a heart, how to fire up a laser, how the universe began with a Big Bang.<\/p>\n But science is clearly out of favor now, especially in Florida. If you don\u2019t believe me, look at the argument the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission put forward last week to convince a judge to approve a different kind of Big Bang: the first bear hunt in 10 years, starting Saturday.<\/a><\/p>\n An animal advocacy group called Bear Warriors United<\/a> sued to stop the hunt, arguing that allowing people to blow away 172 bears over 22 days would fly in the face of science. The FWC\u2019s attorney argued that there\u2019s no law requiring the agency to follow this \u201cscience\u201d stuff.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is nothing that mandates or controls how a commissioner votes,\u201d the FWC attorney argued in a court filing, \u201cnor requires that a commissioner base his or her vote specifically on a body of sound science.\u201d<\/p>\n So beat it, you brainiacs! We don\u2019t need no stinkin\u2019 science! We can do what we want!<\/p>\n Clay Henderson (Image via Clay Henderson)<\/p>\n Clay Henderson<\/a>, who helped create the wildlife commission 25 years ago, told me he was \u201cjust flummoxed by the FWC response. Their argument is the governor appointed them and the Senate confirmed them and that is all that matters. They are not bound by science.\u201d<\/p>\n This certainly helps explain why the wildlife commissioners pushed for this hunt despite clear evidence that Florida\u2019s bear population is in decline (more on that in a minute).<\/p>\n If they were following the science, they would hold off the hunt until they could get better information. Instead, they followed what I think of as the Veruca Salt Principle, which is \u201cI don\u2019t wanna wait! I want it NOW!\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n When Bear Warriors United first sued, the organization\u2019s founder, Katrina Shadix, told me she hoped the legal challenge would \u201cshine a bright light to expose the FWC\u2019s culture of corruption, as well as demonstrate the desperate and immediate need for massive agency reform.\u201d<\/p>\n The suit has so far failed to stop the hunt, but it sure achieved that goal of switching on the spotlight to show us what the wildlife commissioners are all about.<\/p>\n Repeating mistakes\t<\/p>\n I was there in person for the last bear hunt back in 2015<\/a>. The parallels to today are downright eerie.<\/p>\n The wildlife commission staff couldn\u2019t say for sure how many bears there were, just like today. The hunt was massively unpopular with the general public, just like today. The commissioners who insisted on the need for a hunt sneered at the ignorant public trying to oppose them, just as the commissioners are doing now.<\/p>\n Only one commissioner voted against holding that 2015 hunt: avid outdoorsman Ronald \u201cAlligator Ron\u201d Bergeron,<\/a> a rodeo champ, airboat pilot, and python hunter from Davie. Not exactly a shrinking violet, nor someone who tends to mince words.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m a hunter myself and my family has been here for 170 years, all the way back to the 1840s,\u201d he said 10 years ago<\/a>. \u201cBut I believe that we need to evaluate, take our time a little bit here.\u201d<\/p>\n Waiting would have been the smart thing to do. The hunt turned into a colossal disaster.<\/p>\n Wildlife commissioners had given the hunters a week to kill about 300 bears. They nearly hit the limit after just two days,<\/a> forcing the executive director to shut it down early. Meanwhile, among the dead were 36 lactating mother bears<\/a>, which may have left behind orphaned cubs.<\/p>\n I contacted Bergeron this week to ask him about the sitting commissioners claiming they\u2019re not bound by science. He told me that when he sat on the wildlife commission, he believed that science was essential to doing the job, which was \u2014 in case you forgot the name of the agency \u2014 conserving Florida\u2018s wildlife.<\/p>\n \u201cI think the state\u2019s iconic wildlife \u2014 the panther, the eagle, the manatee, the bear \u2014 deserve an even higher level of protection than other wildlife,\u201d he told me.<\/p>\n Bergeron said he could support having a bear hunt if the science showed a need for one. If there were too many bears for the amount of food they usually eat, for instance, that would be ample justification for thinning them out.<\/p>\n But there\u2019s no science showing that.<\/p>\n Instead, he pointed out, the estimated number of bears in Florida now \u2014 4,050 \u2014 is fewer than the estimated number we had before the hunt 10 years ago \u2014 4,300.<\/p>\n \u201cThe population isn\u2019t growing,\u201d Bergeron said. \u201cIt\u2019s stable.\u201d<\/p>\n That means this isn\u2019t a hunt to control the bear population, he said, but a hunt intended to provide some hunters with a trophy.<\/p>\n From what I heard this week, it\u2019s even worse than that.<\/p>\n Juking the stats\t<\/p>\n During the August commission meeting at which they approved the hunt, Commission Chairman Rodney Barreto bragged about the process behind their vote.<\/p>\n Rodney Barreto via screen grab<\/p>\n \u201cWe make decisions based on science,\u201d said Barreto, a wealthy developer.<\/a> But that was another untruth.<\/p>\n This is the same Barreto who during a legislative committee meeting denied any effort on his part to develop in a sensitive wetland<\/a>, even though an official record indicated he had filed an application to do exactly that.<\/p>\n For its lawsuit, Bear Warriors United brought in a former FWC bear biologist to testify about what was wrong with the agency\u2019s science claims.<\/p>\n After the case was over, I talked to Darcy Doran-Myers, who worked for the agency for four years, about what she said in court. What she told me was disturbing.<\/p>\n It reminded me of a scene from \u201cThe Wire,\u201d in which one of the characters uses the phrase \u201cjuking the stats.\u201d<\/a> It means rearranging the official numbers, twisting them this way and that, so they look better than they really are.<\/p>\n The FWC has divided the state into seven \u201cbear management units.\u201d The hunt is scheduled to occur in four of them.<\/p>\n One of the units in which the FWC plans to allow hunting is called \u201cOsceola.\u201d It\u2019s about as far north as you can go in Florida without winding up in Georgia. The region got its name because it encompasses the Osceola National Forest. It\u2019s known as one of Florida\u2019s most forested and least-developed bear management units.<\/p>\n A scientific abundance survey, presented to one of the FWC\u2019s advisory groups a month after the commissioners\u2019 vote to hold the hunt, reported that Osceola\u2019s bear population has seen a steep decline. It now contains just 165 adult bears, down from 496 in 2014.<\/p>\n The state\u2019s bear management rules \u2014 at least the ones they\u2019re using this year \u2014 say that no hunting can occur in regions with fewer than 200 bears. Obviously, that would eliminate hunting in the Osceola region.<\/p>\n Darcy Doran-Myers via Research Gate<\/p>\n So, they juked the stats. The official estimate for the Osceola region wound up including bears from Georgia too, Doran-Myers said. That boosted the number of bears in the unit to more than 300.<\/p>\n Then the FWC adjusted the total number of bears that could be killed. Originally the commissioners had approved killing 187, but now it\u2019s a slightly smaller number: 172.<\/p>\n Bear (sorry!) in mind that the Florida hunters can\u2019t stray across the state line to kill their prey in Georgia unless they\u2019re licensed in both states. If they aren\u2019t, they can only shoot bears in Florida. But counting bears from a different state gives a different impression about how many targets there are.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s totally illogical from any way I can look at it,\u201d she told me.<\/p>\n Juking the stats also means that by allowing bears to be killed in the Osceola region, the FWC may imperil the future of that segment of the bear population.<\/p>\n That\u2019s not \u201cconservation\u201d by any definition of the word.<\/p>\n There\u2019s no good reason to push this hunt ahead right now. Before the 2015 hunt, there were a number of bear maulings tied to human failure to properly dispose of garbage, so the argument for rushing the hunt then was to take care of that problem (even though we know now that a hunt has no effect on those incidents).<\/p>\n Those sorts of maulings have been stopped by better trash management. We did have one person killed this year<\/a> by a bear \u2014 but that\u2019s the first time that\u2019s happened in Florida history.<\/p>\n Blood money\t<\/p>\n Bear Warriors United is appealing the judge\u2019s ruling allowing the hunt, Shadix told me.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, her organization and its allies have fought back as best they can. They encouraged people who have no interest in killing bears to try to obtain hunting permits from FWC.<\/p>\n By one count, people who won\u2019t hunt bears won 52<\/a> of the permits issued. That\u2019s about 30% of all the permits, which should give you a good idea of how strongly some people want to protect the bears.<\/p>\n However, that may not help as much as it seems.<\/p>\n Katrina Shadix via screengrab<\/p>\n People who do manage to kill a bear have to turn in their official bear \u201ctag\u201d along with proof of their kill within 24 hours. Shadix pointed me to some social media posts by people in favor of killing bears. One, a woman from the town of Vernon (so odd and violent a place that it was the subject of an Errol Morris documentary<\/a>), wrote, \u201cI\u2019m not using my tag until Bear No. 3.\u201d<\/p>\n Some bear advocates are also offering to pay hunters with permits $2,000 not to kill a bear.\u00a0 Shadix said she\u2019s seen social media comments from hunters about how they think that\u2019s a cheap effort. They can make $10,000 off selling bear body parts such as gallbladders<\/a> to people who use them for folk medicine.<\/p>\n So, to sum up, the state wildlife commissioners \u2014 all of whom were appointed by Gov. Ron DeSantis and most of whom are in the development business \u2014 ignored actual science and public opinion to hang a target on the state\u2019s shrinking bear population and make a few people a lot of money.<\/p>\n Even worse, they\u2019re allowing the use of bows and arrows, crossbows, and bait to lure wary bears close enough to shoot. If there\u2019s a hunt in 2027, they plan to allow the use of dogs to harry the bears, too.<\/p>\n DeSantis could put a stop to this if he wanted. As I mentioned, he appointed all seven commissioners. He could call Barreto and say, \u201cDon\u2019t do this.\u201d<\/p>\n I asked his official spokespeople if he was going to step in and save the bears. As usual, I didn\u2019t hear back from them even to acknowledge my question. Shadix said her organization and others have appealed to him for help. They, too, got radio silence.<\/p>\n But that\u2019s understandable. DeSantis\u2019 pro-development choices for the wildlife commission have done little to conserve wildlife, and he\u2019s done nothing to rein them in.<\/p>\n During his years in office, we\u2019ve seen a major manatee die-off<\/a> and now there are signs that the population of the Florida panther is in decline.<\/a> That\u2019s our official state animal, barely saved from extinction once<\/a>, now apparently headed for the exit door again.<\/p>\n When it suits him, DeSantis likes to pretend to be as green as a glass of beer on St. Patrick\u2019s Day, but he\u2019s not.<\/a> His actions \u2014 or lack thereof \u2014 speak far louder than his words. That\u2019s just science.<\/p>\n Independent Journalism for All <\/p>\n As a nonprofit newsroom, our articles are free for everyone to access. Readers like you make that possible. Can you help sustain our watchdog reporting today?<\/p>\n SUPPORT <\/p>\n <\/a> <\/p>\n Florida Phoenix<\/a> is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Florida Phoenix maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Michael Moline for questions: info@floridaphoenix.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Florida black bear. 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December 4, 2025<\/p>\n