ORLANDO, Fla. — Talks continue over a potential black bear hunt in Florida. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission is asking the public about what they would like to see if a regulated hunt was to take place.
What You Need To Know
- FWC to hold a virtual public meeting regarding a potential black bear to get public input
- The last bear hunt was nearly 10 years ago
- Commissioners asked staff for a bear hunt proposal during their meeting in December 2024
- PREVIOUS STORIES:
Nearly 10 years have passed since Florida last held a bear hunt. According to FWC, the purpose of the hunt was to stabilize the state’s growing bear population “with suitable habitat,” and to maintain a healthy balance of bears to humans.
They said it also adds economic benefits, a reason to consider another hunt.
In December 2024, agency staff presented an update to the 2019 Florida Black Bear Management Plan. During that meeting, commissioners requested a proposal for another bear hunt, despite staff saying a hunt isn’t necessary.
Their report provided information on objectives for the future that included statistics pertaining to bear population, habitat, human-bear conflicts and education.
Education — and defending black bears — is something the executive director of OneProtest, an animal rights advocacy organization, has been passionate about.
Adam Sugalski has helped raise public awareness on black bear hunts across the state through multi-city protests, while seeking other methods to control the animal’s population growth that does not involve death.
Sugalski argues humans are creating the problem that wildlife leaders want to shoot away.
“It’s most likely people not putting their trash away and the bears are coming from the woods because you’re overdeveloping everywhere and all of a sudden someone’s leaving their garbage out. So it’s like we’re blaming the bears for a problem we’re creating and then the solution is to go out and shoot them. The solution is people putting their garbage away, it’s education awareness,” he said.
However, Brad Lowery, the president of the Florida Bow Hunters Council, says he doesn’t want any misconstrued notions about the hunting community’s intentions.
“We do not want to see all the bears gone from Florida. We want to maintain a healthy population and the hunting community feels the best way to do that is to put a value to these animals that they currently do not have,” Lowery said.
FWC’s virtual public meeting on Thursday will start at 6 p.m. You can join by going to myfwc.com/hunting/bear.
The next commission meetings regarding a bear hunt will take place on May 21 and 22 in Ocala.