The New Jersey Fish and Game Council approved a bear management plan Wednesday that would allow bear hunting until at least 2028, despite objections of environmental and animals rights organizations who call the harvesting cruel and inhumane.
The council says the policy will control the bear population and minimize human encounters, reasoning opponents dispute. “Today’s decision to extend the black bear hunt in New Jersey is a tragic example of ineffective wildlife management that directly defies the people’s wishes. New Jerseyans do not want this hunt,” New Jersey Sierra Club director Anjuli Ramos-Busot said in a statement immediately after the vote. “Instead, the state should be prioritizing nonlethal management tactics that protect our beloved bears, who are victims of New Jersey’s overdevelopment and conservation crisis.
Hajna said the policy contains both “nonlethal and lethal management actions to ensure the sustainability of the species, provide for public safety, and reduce incidences of bear-human conflicts.”After Sept. 8, the DEP will implement black bear hunting over two one-week segments, one in October and the other in December, in designated zones in some or all of Bergen, Hunterdon, Mercer, Morris, Passaic, Somerset and Sussex Counties.