I am cross posting an alert from the Animal Protection League of New Jersey. There is no more important time than now to tell Gov. Christie and his government that a mass killing of NJ black bears is unacceptable. This coming December, 400 bears will be slaughtered in the name of wildlife management. This is an attack on our natural treasures, an inhumane pastime that has nothing to do with natural conservation but caters to the blood lust of the small hunting community. If it is not kill the deer, it's kill the geese. After the geese, it's kill the bears. Most NJ residents do not hunt and do not support hunting. Four years of no organized bear hunting under former Gov. Corzine's administration did not create the bear population explosion that the pro-hunting group always uses to scare the New Jersey population. Please help.
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Black Bear Protection Campaign
The NJ Division of Fish and Wildlife and the NJ Fish and Game Council are planning another black bear massacre. The hunters are talking on their forums about the proposed hunt and salivating over the prospect of killing hundreds of bears. Their leaders are spreading fear and misinformation in order to get another bear hunt, calling us names and employing character assassination techniques.
The bears need us once again to pull up our sleeves and fight for them with everything we've got. We will focus on the truth, working to save our bears, their environment, and to strive for peaceful co-existence and permanent bear protection. We are working closely with the BEAR Group and are aggressively building the Coalition to Protect NJ Black Bears.
TWO CRITICAL THINGS TO DO FOR BEARS RIGHT NOW
1. PUBLIC HEARING
Please try to attend and speak out to stop the proposed bear massacre. Our vast united presence at this hearing will send a strong message to the Governor. Each person is given only 2-3 minutes to speak, but it is important to be there as the media will report on the number present. See talking points below to help you frame your comments. Feel free to use your own thoughts as well.
DATE: Tuesday, May 11 at 6pm
LOCATION: NJ State Museum, 205 West State Street, Trenton, NJ 08625
A bus is will be making stops from North Jersey going south. Here’s the schedule:
2:30 PM: Hillcrest Community Center, 1810 Macopin Road, West Milford, NJ 07840. Park on the extreme left side of building and in the back.
3:45 PM: Wayne Municipal Building. Park in the back of the lot alongside Valley Road, across from the library. Car owners must place a sign on their windshield that they are on the BEAR Group trip so that they will not get a ticket.
4:45 PM: Border's Parking Lot, Commons Way Road, Bridgewater, NJ 08807. Park in Borders' parking lot closest to Commons Way Road.
NOTE: The bus is being organized by the BEAR Group and they are asking for a $10 donation for riders to defray the cost. We plan to leave Trenton around 9 PM, or after every rider has had the opportunity to speak.
2. SUBMIT YOUR COMMENTS
The official public comment period for the State's Comprehensive Black Bear Management Policy is in progress. PLEASE make it your top priority to write a letter opposing the proposed bear hunt. Ask everyone you know to do the same. See talking points below to help you. Feel free to use your own thoughts as well.
Submit your letters/comments before the June 18, 2010 deadline to:
Larry Herrighty, CBBMP
Division of Fish and Wildlife
Department of Environmental Protection
PO Box 400
Trenton, New Jersey 08625-0400
You can also submit comments electronically at http://www.njfishandwildlife.com/bearpolicy10_comment.htm (For your records, and to send to Christie, print the page before you hit the submit button.)
It is also important to send a copy of your letter to Governor Christie, PO Box 001, Trenton, NJ 08625 so that he experiences the volume of mail opposed to the proposed bear hunt.
If you need any help or have any questions, please feel free to contact us.
TALKING POINTS ABOUT BEARS
1. Education is a PROVEN method to reduce human bear conflicts. Dr. Edward Tavss' nationwide report showed that nonlethal black bear management is the only effective solution. States surrounding New Jersey have rising nuisance complaints despite their bear hunts.
2. Hunting will NOT stop aberrant bear behavior or prevent a tragedy. At the March 7, 2003 meeting of the Fish and Game Council, the Council all agreed that the child killed by a black bear in NY was extremely rare. Then-councilman George Howard said, "All the hunts in the world will not address that..."
3. Bear hunts are 100% trophy hunts. They kill bears to stuff them, mount their heads and make them into rugs. The bear pictured above was killed during the 2003 bear hunt and displayed at the Division of Fish and Wildlife's booth at the 2005 Sussex County Fair.
4. Garbage containment is extremely important not only for keeping bears away from homes, but it also reduces their population growth rate. Bears without access to unnatural food sources will not gain as much weight. Weight is a critical factor in their reproductive cycle.
5. The more people know about bear hunts, the more they support nonlethal black bear management. A majority of residents DO NOT support bear hunts in New Jersey and consider the issue VERY important. http://www.humanesociety.org/news/press_releases/2010/04/nj_residents_oppose_bear_hunt_041610.html
6. The Division of Fish and Wildlife claims to have handled hundreds of bears since the 1980s. Since then, bears have been captured through barrel traps and leg snares in the name of research. Each bear trapped is drugged, tagged, has blood drawn, a tooth removed, collared, etc. Although we do not agree with the population estimates put forth by an agency that wants to institutionalize bear hunting, Division biologists could easily sterilize the males (surgical or Neutersol) during all this handling and participate in extensive trials of immunocontraception methods currently in development.
7. The bear population statistics are controversial and CANNOT be substantiated, including the most recent East Stroudsburg University study, which was underwritten by the Division. In 1988, the Division estimated 150 bears in New Jersey and wanted a hunt.
8. Fifty-two percent of the bears killed in 2005 were cubs and yearlings. Claims by the Division that mothers and cubs would be protected because of the timing of the hunt was tragically false. In fact, we have records from 2003 that show mothers and cubs were deliberately killed by groups of hunters.
9. People are at GREATER risk of being hurt by a hunting accident than by a bear. Over the last 10 years, New Jersey hunters averaged 11.5 hunting incidents with injury per year. In the last twenty-six years, hunters in hunting incidents injured sixteen non-hunters. From 1995 to 2005, five people were killed in hunting accidents in NJ.
10. For more than 160 years, black bears have neither killed nor seriously harmed any person in New Jersey. That's an astounding record of co-existence.
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Animal Protection League of NJ (APLNJ)
Protecting animals since 1983 through advocacy, public education and legislation
To financially support APLNJ's work, please click here: www.aplnj.org/donation.htm
Phone: 732-446-6808 / Web: www.APLNJ.org
Be Green! Visit www.chooseveg.com and explore a plant-based diet.
_______________________________________________
NjaraAlert mailing list
NjaraAlert@lists.igc.org
http://lists.igc.org/mailman/listinfo/njaraalert
delivered to: Supersympa@aol.com
==========================================
Black Bear Protection Campaign
The NJ Division of Fish and Wildlife and the NJ Fish and Game Council are planning another black bear massacre. The hunters are talking on their forums about the proposed hunt and salivating over the prospect of killing hundreds of bears. Their leaders are spreading fear and misinformation in order to get another bear hunt, calling us names and employing character assassination techniques.
The bears need us once again to pull up our sleeves and fight for them with everything we've got. We will focus on the truth, working to save our bears, their environment, and to strive for peaceful co-existence and permanent bear protection. We are working closely with the BEAR Group and are aggressively building the Coalition to Protect NJ Black Bears.
TWO CRITICAL THINGS TO DO FOR BEARS RIGHT NOW
1. PUBLIC HEARING
Please try to attend and speak out to stop the proposed bear massacre. Our vast united presence at this hearing will send a strong message to the Governor. Each person is given only 2-3 minutes to speak, but it is important to be there as the media will report on the number present. See talking points below to help you frame your comments. Feel free to use your own thoughts as well.
DATE: Tuesday, May 11 at 6pm
LOCATION: NJ State Museum, 205 West State Street, Trenton, NJ 08625
A bus is will be making stops from North Jersey going south. Here’s the schedule:
2:30 PM: Hillcrest Community Center, 1810 Macopin Road, West Milford, NJ 07840. Park on the extreme left side of building and in the back.
3:45 PM: Wayne Municipal Building. Park in the back of the lot alongside Valley Road, across from the library. Car owners must place a sign on their windshield that they are on the BEAR Group trip so that they will not get a ticket.
4:45 PM: Border's Parking Lot, Commons Way Road, Bridgewater, NJ 08807. Park in Borders' parking lot closest to Commons Way Road.
NOTE: The bus is being organized by the BEAR Group and they are asking for a $10 donation for riders to defray the cost. We plan to leave Trenton around 9 PM, or after every rider has had the opportunity to speak.
2. SUBMIT YOUR COMMENTS
The official public comment period for the State's Comprehensive Black Bear Management Policy is in progress. PLEASE make it your top priority to write a letter opposing the proposed bear hunt. Ask everyone you know to do the same. See talking points below to help you. Feel free to use your own thoughts as well.
Submit your letters/comments before the June 18, 2010 deadline to:
Larry Herrighty, CBBMP
Division of Fish and Wildlife
Department of Environmental Protection
PO Box 400
Trenton, New Jersey 08625-0400
You can also submit comments electronically at http://www.njfishandwildlife.com/bearpolicy10_comment.htm (For your records, and to send to Christie, print the page before you hit the submit button.)
It is also important to send a copy of your letter to Governor Christie, PO Box 001, Trenton, NJ 08625 so that he experiences the volume of mail opposed to the proposed bear hunt.
If you need any help or have any questions, please feel free to contact us.
TALKING POINTS ABOUT BEARS
1. Education is a PROVEN method to reduce human bear conflicts. Dr. Edward Tavss' nationwide report showed that nonlethal black bear management is the only effective solution. States surrounding New Jersey have rising nuisance complaints despite their bear hunts.
2. Hunting will NOT stop aberrant bear behavior or prevent a tragedy. At the March 7, 2003 meeting of the Fish and Game Council, the Council all agreed that the child killed by a black bear in NY was extremely rare. Then-councilman George Howard said, "All the hunts in the world will not address that..."
3. Bear hunts are 100% trophy hunts. They kill bears to stuff them, mount their heads and make them into rugs. The bear pictured above was killed during the 2003 bear hunt and displayed at the Division of Fish and Wildlife's booth at the 2005 Sussex County Fair.
4. Garbage containment is extremely important not only for keeping bears away from homes, but it also reduces their population growth rate. Bears without access to unnatural food sources will not gain as much weight. Weight is a critical factor in their reproductive cycle.
5. The more people know about bear hunts, the more they support nonlethal black bear management. A majority of residents DO NOT support bear hunts in New Jersey and consider the issue VERY important. http://www.humanesociety.org/news/press_releases/2010/04/nj_residents_oppose_bear_hunt_041610.html
6. The Division of Fish and Wildlife claims to have handled hundreds of bears since the 1980s. Since then, bears have been captured through barrel traps and leg snares in the name of research. Each bear trapped is drugged, tagged, has blood drawn, a tooth removed, collared, etc. Although we do not agree with the population estimates put forth by an agency that wants to institutionalize bear hunting, Division biologists could easily sterilize the males (surgical or Neutersol) during all this handling and participate in extensive trials of immunocontraception methods currently in development.
7. The bear population statistics are controversial and CANNOT be substantiated, including the most recent East Stroudsburg University study, which was underwritten by the Division. In 1988, the Division estimated 150 bears in New Jersey and wanted a hunt.
8. Fifty-two percent of the bears killed in 2005 were cubs and yearlings. Claims by the Division that mothers and cubs would be protected because of the timing of the hunt was tragically false. In fact, we have records from 2003 that show mothers and cubs were deliberately killed by groups of hunters.
9. People are at GREATER risk of being hurt by a hunting accident than by a bear. Over the last 10 years, New Jersey hunters averaged 11.5 hunting incidents with injury per year. In the last twenty-six years, hunters in hunting incidents injured sixteen non-hunters. From 1995 to 2005, five people were killed in hunting accidents in NJ.
10. For more than 160 years, black bears have neither killed nor seriously harmed any person in New Jersey. That's an astounding record of co-existence.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Animal Protection League of NJ (APLNJ)
Protecting animals since 1983 through advocacy, public education and legislation
To financially support APLNJ's work, please click here: www.aplnj.org/donation.htm
Phone: 732-446-6808 / Web: www.APLNJ.org
Be Green! Visit www.chooseveg.com and explore a plant-based diet.
_______________________________________________
NjaraAlert mailing list
NjaraAlert@lists.igc.org
http://lists.igc.org/mailman/listinfo/njaraalert
delivered to: Supersympa@aol.com
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