The Wall Street Journal- July 11, 2003

The Northeast has always been a teensy bit smug about its ability to live harmoniously with nature, rolling a collective eye at Westerners who complain about the incursions of wildlife. And so it is with a teensy bit of smugness that we watch New Jersey finally admit that it has lost its battle with the wild things and decided to fight back.

This week, the New Jersey Fish & Game Council voted to allow the state's first black bear hunt in 33 years. Officials will hand out 10,000 bear permits, in hopes of making a dent in the bear population that has been ransacking garbage cans, breaking into houses, killing livestock and mauling residents.

And bears aren't the only problem. Deer are swarming the suburbs, as many as 100 per square mile, robbing the Garden State of its namesake and keeping the bumper repair business in boom times. Some 100,000 Canada geese hiss after hapless golfers and blanket every park, backyard and picnic area with fragrant goose droppings. Coyotes howl in the night, wild turkeys terrorize locals and squirrels hang menacingly from trees. Natty Bumpo himself would think twice before going to work.

Until recently, New Jerseyites were proudly tolerant of this infestation. Animal advocacy groups, of course, never tire of reminding guilty suburbanites that the animals were here first, that it isn't their fault and by the way how would you like to be shot in the head? Activists worked over state officials like former Governor Christie Whitman, who intervened to stop the state's last planned bear hunt in 2000. She suggested that humans learn to coexist peacefully with animals and promoted bear-awareness programs.

Since then, New Jerseyites have learned something about bears: primarily that they have no interest in coexisting peacefully with humans. It seems that bears don't understand personal space: one New Jersey mother left her child briefly on the front stoop only to return and find a swatting it about the face. And bears don't respect property rights: they maul expensive Weber barbeque grills, root through garbage cans and eat up pet dogs named Spot. Ditto many other beasts in the state.

So somewhere between sidestepping a pile of goose excrement and giving wide berth to a foraging bear, New Jersey residents realized that these are, after all, just animals- and way too many of them. State residents have thrown off the guilt and are putting the earth back in balance- with humans on top.

Following in the footsteps of the bear hunt initiative, New Jersey park workers recently took care of their goose problem by rounding up hissers and gassing them to death in trucks. Local towns have been hiring "deer control" services to cull populations.

Activists have expressed the usual horror but have been drowned out by the cheers of a million gleeful picnickers, car drivers, ballplayers and gardeners. Nature's nice, after all. Just not when it's chasing you down the street.

[ 07-12-2003, 01:09: Message edited by: fla3006 ]

It's about time they faced reality...

But 10,000 bear tags? That sure sounds like an awful lot, in a state like NJ.

ColdBore, Pretty soon the bears will outnumber the Mafia.

I hope that the permits only allow hunting in a rural area. I have read stuff about it but I dont think urban areas are any place to allow hunting. The only thing hunters would get out of it is bad press.Just think of a wounded bear running in urban areas. Leave the hunting for the places it belongs.

The big question now: is the State of New Jersey going to let its hunters use rifles for its bear hunt, or will they be restricted to shotguns only?

Any guesses on how big the new world's record Blackie will be from the state of NJ?? 33 years with no hunting, man there has to be a top 3 bear in NJ. I wonder what a NonRes tag will cost.

[ 07-13-2003, 07:00: Message edited by: MGC ]

You people need some wolves!

When bear hunting is outlawed, only bears will hunt.

Paul