WFTV 9 Investigates:
"Despite Lawsuit'
Check out those
poppas seat-warmers in this clip!
9 Investigates:
Despite lawsuit, Florida to move forward with bear hunt
Posted: 7:24 p.m.
Tuesday, Aug. 11, 2015
Tim Orrange Longwood
resident
WFTV news reporter
Christopher Heath
Bear proof trash
container one must stick your finger into it to open, bears have learned that
there is no free meals on his property.
Fish and wildlife
think 'THINKS' now there's an oxymoron, that this hunt will be one of those
tools to control population however, so far this is the only took that they
want to use?
As of this past
Julys report the Fish and Wildlife Officials do not know how many bears are out
there?
Attorney Christeners
Byrd lawsuit is still pending,
Pending on what?
Christeners Byrd
"This hunt will not stop bears from coming into neighborhoods but it will
seriously harm the species."
Wouldn't it be a
great sport to watch hunters from around the world buy 1500 'THRICE' to hunt
our gamers in Florida?
Can you just picture
the beauty of Florida, if Floridians could dump all of the Florida Fish and
Wildlife, all of the St Johns River Management District and all of our Crooked
Politicians?
Officials have not
as yet said how many bears will be allowed to kill although some suggest around
320, RIGHT!
SEMINOLE COUNTY,
Fla. —
Despite a
pending lawsuit, Florida is moving forward with its first bear hunt in more
than two decades. Already, more than 1,500 permits have been sold despite
the fact that FWC doesn’t have an accurate count on the number of bears and
hasn’t released the total number of bears it will allow to be killed.
“That is a very
dangerous precedent that we could be setting here,” said former Department of
Environmental Protection attorney Christopher Byrd. “The science actually
shows that a bear hunt is very ineffective.”
Byrd is the lead
attorney in the lawsuit to stop the hunt. Byrd and other
environmentalists say the decisions by FWC could do significant harm to the
species beyond just population control.
“If everybody gets a
bear, or half get a bear, then we’re over the quota on the first day,” said
Longwood resident Tim Orrange.
“A lot of people are
spending their money on permits, they’re not just going to walk away.”
FWC, which says it
will not have an accurate count of bears in Florida until 2016, told Nine
Investigates it has policies in place to make sure the bear hunt is
controlled.
“The bear harvest
will be limited through daily decisions regarding season closure, based on
daily harvest totals,” said Tammy Sapp of FWC.
“Hunters are
required to check harvested bears at check stations within 12 hours of
recovery, and we will monitor daily harvest in each Bear Management Unit.”
FWC says after the
first two days, the agency will consider closing the hunt if too many bears are
killed.
While FWC has not
said what the total limit will be, at its meeting earlier this summer FWC
commissioners suggested limiting the hunt to 320 bears.