By Brian R. Hackett

"As governor, I would institute a moratorium on the state's bear hunt." - Phil Murphy

In December of 2016, then-candidate for governor, Phil Murphy, explicitly stated that if elected, he would put an end to the trophy hunting of New Jersey's beloved bears.

Now, nearly a year into his term in office, Gov. Murphy has finally begun to address this campaign promise with the announced closure of the 2018 bear hunt on 700,000 acres of state lands. While this is a step in the right direction, the policy permits trophy hunters of bears to prowl on over two million acres of "huntable" public and private lands.

New Jersey's history of bear hunting has been tumultuous, to say the least, with former Gov. Jim McGreevey reinstated a trophy bear hunt in 2003, ending a decades long policy of protecting the bears. The move was so controversial that he reinstated a hunting ban a year later. Under the Christie administration, New Jersey opened up two hunting seasons each year, one in October and one in December.

Each trophy hunter could kill up to two bears, one bear in each season, including mother bears with cubs or even the cubs themselves. The wildlife agency allocated the sale of 11,000 black bear permits per year, making our state's bear hunt is nearly as extreme as Alaska's.

Studies show that between 8 percent and 27 percent of animals shot as a result of hunters using bows and arrows die slowly -- these are not quick, "clean" or humane deaths.

While New Jersey's unscientific black bear management plan allows trophy hunters to kill up to 30 percent of the entire population each year, the best available science indicates that it's only safe to remove six to 10 percent of an entire population. In other words, New Jersey's wildlife managers allow trophy hunters to kill three times more bears than is a safe, sustainable amount.

Those 4,052 dead bears don't include the individuals killed by poachers or the litters of dependent cubs left to starve and who died after trophy hunters killed their mothers. Bear cubs depend on their mothers for survival for up to 18 months. Respected biologists have noted that hunts like NJ's trophy hunt do nothing to alleviate human-bear conflicts.

Millions of Americans encounter bears every year with unremarkable outcomes. When it comes to avoiding human-bear conflicts, studies also show that unsecured food is the root cause triggering them. Rather than gun down bears like Pedals, the beloved upright-walking bear who was shot by a trophy hunter two years ago, New Jersey should focus its resources on educating the public about ways to peacefully coexist with bears.

These techniques can effectively alleviate human-bear conflicts. If policymakers truly care about reducing these conflicts, they must take a comprehensive approach, the lack of which is the real root of the problem.

It certainly doesn't help that the state allows hunters to set out thousands of pounds of rotten human foods to "bait" bears to lure them in for an easy kill. This behavior is not only unsporting, it habituates bears to human foods. The practice also artificially increases the bear population because the animals have more calories available.

With so much evidence, it should not be so difficult to shut down this hunt. Who is pushing for it? Not the independent wildlife biologists decrying this unsustainable hunt. Certainly not the bears. And certainly not the overwhelming majority of New Jersey residents, who clearly stand opposed to cruel practices like killing cubs and mother bears and using rotting food baits.

Brian R. Hackett is the New Jersey state director for the Humane Society of the United States.

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