New Jersey’s Fish and Game Council voted to allow the state’s first black bear hunt in five years.

The Sierra Club believes the bears are attracted to human garbage.  Gee, you think?

In 2007, the state Department of Environmental Protection implemented sweeps of counties with the most black bear complaints, issuing warnings or fines to people suspected of feeding bears, which officials believe explained the rise in complaints.

And, I suppose, the Fish and Game Council believes there are just too many bears running around.  Bear numbers around the state are rising, based on complaints.  It couldn’t be that every square inch of New Jersey is either developed human living area or farmland protected by farmers with “special permits to kill black bears that destroy crops and threaten livestock?”

Where are the bears supposed to go and hunt, reproduce, and live?

How typical : kill the problem.

Public hearings will eventually be held on the subject, then a final decision will be made by acting Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Bob Martin.

via: charlotteobserver.com & nj.com