NJ Bear hunt concludes with close to 600 Bears taken.....This Blogger is not anti-hunter..............simply questioning the science behind the quotas that NJ fish & wildlife set for this go-around based on the Garden State having been called on the carpet three years ago for potentially overstating the size of the Bruin population---and better co-existance policies need to be stressed as it relates to garbage disposal and farmer disposal of waste

Protesters get in last digs as record NJ bear hunt ends

BY SHAWN BOBURG

The Record

On the final day of the state's first black bear hunt in five years, wildlife officials declared the record-breaking season a success while protesters heckled hunters and vowed to fight plans for next year's.

  An estimated 562 bears were killed during the six-day hunt as of 5 p.m. Saturday, the most ever recorded, said state Department of Environmental Protection spokesman Larry Ragonese. The final tally would not be known until this morning, he said.

"It's been a great success," Ragonese said at the bear check station in Whittingham Wildlife Management Area near Newton. "Knowing that hundreds of cubs will be born this winter, we probably managed to stabilize or slightly reduce the population."--black bears usually give birth to 1 or 2 cubs,,,,,and of course, not all survive to adulthood like in any wildlife population--...............so killing off 15or more % of the Jersey Bruins very well might be found to be unsustainable--blogger Rick
Wildlife officials said the hunt was necessary to stabilize the state's population of 3,400 bears and reduce adverse human run-ins.--many biologists challenge the 3400 projection number and think it overstated--blogger Rick
Across the street from the station, about 150 animal-rights activists gathered in a cordoned-off area. They held protest signs, screamed into bullhorns and called passing hunters "cowards," "sociopaths" and "killers.""Certainly this is no longer a hunt, it's a massacre," said protester Ted Teodoro, a librarian.
Critics of the hunt say it was not needed and cruel compared with non-lethal approaches.They argue that state officials should instead educate the public about how to reduce human-bear incidents. And on Saturday, they promised continued pressure on lawmakers to kill next year's hunt.
"We've just begun, and the backlash will be severe," said protest organizer Angi Metler, the executive director of the Animal Protection League of New Jersey. "The people who didn't help us with the bears this year, we are going to make sure they don't get back in office. We outnumber the hunters."
Ragonese said protesters were unfairly targeting bear hunters."It seems like bears have become 'Disney-fied' — that, somehow, they're not wild animals."He said the DEP commissioner would review results of the hunt in the coming months before making any decision about next year's hunt. But he noted the state's Comprehensive Black Bear Management Plan currently calls for a hunt."We don't have to have a hunt, but unless something dramatic happens we'll likely have one," he said. "Because the number of bears killed fell into the range we had planned, it will not substantially reduce the numbers next year."
State officials previously said they expected between 500 and 700 bears would be killed.
The handful of hunters who hauled dead black bears to the Vernon station Saturday afternoon said they tried to ignore the protests.
"Everybody is entitled to their opinion," said Keith Veerheck of Montague while looking over the gutted 271-pound bear he had killed with a .50 caliber muzzleloader rifle. The lifelong hunter said that there are "too many bears in Montague." "Farmers complain," he said.Hunter Rob Keck, a conservation consultant from South Carolina and former CEO of the National Wild Turkey Foundation, called hunters "the heroes of the conservation movement.""Hunters have paid for the comeback of many animals that were on the brink of extinction," he said. "Through wildlife fees, permits and excise tax on arms and ammunition, we have generated billions of dollars that have gone into conservation efforts."
One of the 7,800 people with a permit to kill bears this year was the 11-year-old son of David Vough of Sussex County. Vough said he missed his shot at the small bear in Frelinghuysen, but his son hit the 107-pounder.
"It's his first bear," he said. "He shot a deer last year."
Vough said he had experienced protests during the last two bear hunts, in 2003 and 2005, but the shouting crowds on Saturday still made him uncomfortable. "I try to ignore it, and I tell my son to try to ignore it," he said.

"We don't have to have a hunt, but unless something dramatic happens we'll likely have one," he said. "Because the number of bears killed fell into the range we had planned, it will not substantially reduce the numbers next year."

State officials previously said they expected between 500 and 700 bears would be killed.
The handful of hunters who hauled dead black bears to the Vernon station Saturday afternoon said they tried to ignore the protests.

"Everybody is entitled to their opinion," said Keith Veerheck of Montague while looking over the gutted 271-pound bear he had killed with a .50 caliber muzzleloader rifle. The lifelong hunter said that there are "too many bears in Montague." "Farmers complain," he said.

Merrilee Cichy, a protester from Little Falls, said her goal was to force hunters and the public not to ignore the protesters' message. She called the bear-shoot a gift from Governor Christie to the "hunting lobby."

"Our greatest hope for impact is to convince the public that the hunt was unnecessary and politically motivated," she said. "We're not going away. … We'll be out here fighting every week if we have to."