Pony killed by bear at farm in Sussex
Strength and speed stun victim's owner
Friday, March 18, 2005
BY AMANDA GERUT
Star-Ledger Staff
Wildlife officials believe a pony found attacked near an Andover Township farm yesterday may have been the victim of a hungry bear driven by a lack of spring plants.

The state Department of Environmental Protection's Fish and Game officials set a culvert bear trap -- a cylindrical drum with bacon and molasses bait -- near the Stickles Pond Road hobby farm to catch the bear, officials said.


The bruin is believed to be a large one because the pony weighed at least 250 pounds and was dragged through two fences and up a hill, officials said. The pony suffered a broken neck before it was hauled off.

"It's a classic bear kill, which is breaking the neck and dragging (an animal) off into the woods," said DEP spokeswoman Elaine Makatura.

The pony, a 15-year-old stallion named Phantom, lived at the 9-acre hobby farm for a short two months before he was found yesterday by his owner, Judy Burns.

Burns, 43, brought Phantom to the farm in the hopes of breeding him. When he arrived, he joined two ponies, two Morgan horses, a flock of chickens, three goats, a few sheep, three rabbits, four dogs, some cats and wild peacocks.

He spent his last night outside with a pregnant mare named Misty, who was unhurt in the attack. Phantom did not sire Misty's offspring.

Burns said she thought the attack must have been swift because none of the dogs barked, she didn't hear a whinny from the horses or a peep from the peacocks after she fed the animals Wednesday night at 11 p.m. And the feed was hay, not sweet-smelling feed that might attract a bear.

"It really doesn't look like that much of a struggle," said Burns, distraught. "I would think if he was kicking and carrying on, we would have heard him. We heard absolutely nothing."

Burns said she noticed Phantom missing at 6 a.m. when she went to bring the ponies in from their paddock.

She hiked across the farm towards the woods with a rope to bring the pony back. When she got about 400 yards into the grove, she saw Phantom's battered body. "This is the last thing I expected to find," Burns said.

Andover Township police identified the attacker as a bear from the prints at the scene.

"It was a big, big print," said Patrolman Rod Mosner, who responded to the farm. "It's amazing (the bear) had that much strength and power to drag a pony that far."

The bear apparently crawled under an electric fence with four strands of charged wires, then went over the three-board fence with a strand of electric wire, Burns said.

Burns said she has seen bear droppings and knows they have been through the pastures before, but has never had any problems.

"My 10-year-old son locks up the chicken coop at night, and now I'm going to be paranoid because you don't know if (the bear) is going to be hanging out," Burns said.

National wildlife experts said it was unusual for a black bear to attack such a large animal.

"You don't hear about this very often," said Lynn Rogers, a wildlife biologist from Montana who has studied bears for more than 30 years. "For a bear to go after something the size of a horse is pretty unusual, although some states do pay for livestock losses because this kind of thing does happen occasionally."

Sue Mansfield, a bear tracker in New Hampshire, said she had only heard of one other similar case.

"I've heard that years ago there was one bear that was causing quite a bit of devastation to livestock, but it was sort of an isolated incident. I haven't heard of any since," Mansfield said.

Makatura said March is about the time of year bears start leaving their dens, and males are usually active first. Although spring is around the corner, plants are not developed enough to be a substantial source of food for the bears, she said.

"People living in bear country should remain alert and realize that now is the time for bears to come out of their dens," Makatura said. "Start closing up their garbage and realize bears have an extremely sensitive sense of smell."

As for Phantom, he will likely be buried on the farm, Burns said.



Amanda Gerut covers Sussex County. She can be reached at agerut@starledger.com or (973) 383- 0516.

Good thing we don't have any trouble with bears in NJ!

Here is a follow up on that 500lb bear!
Andover woman says bruin returned
Saturday, March 19, 2005
BY JIM LOCKWOOD
Star-Ledger Staff
A 500-pound bear that killed and ate a miniature horse in Sussex County early Thursday returned to the farm Thursday night, but it avoided a trap and ran off when police arrived, the horse's owner said yesterday.

It was the first horse reported killed by a bear in New Jersey, and the first livestock killed by a bruin this year, said state Division of Fish and Wildlife biologist Kelcey Burguess.


The attack comes as hibernation is ending for hungry male bears -- they awaken before females and cubs -- and before the vegetation they typically eat, such as skunk cabbage, has come up, he said. Burguess said bears also have been seen in the past two weeks in Parsippany and West Caldwell, as well as in Woolwich in Gloucester County.

"This isn't going to be the last" livestock kill, he said. "It's not atypical."

When bears attack livestock, sheep or goats are usually the menu, he said. But a miniature horse is akin to a sheep or a goat in size. The offending bruin is thought to be an adult male weighing at least 500 pounds, based on 5-inch-wide paw prints left at the scene.

The miniature horse, named Phantom, weighed 250 pounds and stood 31 inches tall, said its owner, Judy Burns. On Thursday morning, she discovered Phantom was missing from an outdoor pen it shared with another miniature horse, Misty, that is pregnant and was unharmed.

Burns never had a problem with bears in the 13 years she has had the farm in the Springdale section of Andover Township. She initially thought Phantom got loose or was stolen and went looking for him, only to find "bloody drag marks" going up a wooded hill behind her 9-acre farm and leading to the mauled horse carcass.

The bear crawled under electrified fencing atop the hill to get onto her property and over a 4 1/2-foot-high ranch fence surrounding the pen behind the horse stalls at the rear of the farm. Because there was no commotion from other animals at the farm, Burns thinks the bear stealthily grabbed the horse by the neck, killing it immediately, and then carried it over the ranch fence and up the hill before dragging it under the electric fence and into the woods. The horse was partially eaten.

Later that day, the state Division of Fish and Wildlife set a barrel trap for the bear and baited it with remains of the dead horse, bacon and molasses. On Thursday, around 11 p.m., Burns was awakened by the honking of geese and looked outside toward the horse stalls. She saw a large bear on its hind legs peering into stalls holding the other, regular-sized horses.

"It was huge," Burns said of the bear. "He was nowhere near the trap."

She called police, but as they arrived a short time later, the bear ran into the woods.

Yesterday, Burguess issued Burns and her husband a "depredation permit" allowing them to shoot the bear if it returns. He also was checking on whether snares would work as a trap for the bear.

Burns bought the 16-year-old miniature horse two months ago for breeding, and for her 9-year-old son, Danny, to show at the Sussex County Farm and Horse Show. Phantom was the 1993 Grand Champion Stallion Halter at the Keystone Central Horse Show in Centre County, Pa., said breeder Dorla Brown of Allamuchy, who had owned Phantom since 1993 and went to the farm yesterday. Brown blamed former Gov. James E. McGreevey for the bear attack.

"McGreevey canceled the bear hunt. We thank him for that," Brown said angrily. "This (horse attack) is part of his fault for buckling in to all the pressure to cancel the hunt."

DEP spokeswoman Elaine Makatura responded, "I understand how the woman feels, and I have compassion for her because she lost her pony. However, a bear hunt does not eliminate every bear in New Jersey, and there's no way to conclusively prove that this would not have happened if we had a bear hunt in 2004 as we did in 2003.

Burns said, "I wonder if the state is going to compensate me for my horse. It's their bear."

Makatura said it was the Supreme Court that ruled there can only be a bear hunt if first there is a bear-management policy, which is now being worked on jointly by DEP Commissioner Bradley Campbell and the Fish and Game Council.

"I believe the council has put a bear hunt in its code for 2005, but it's not finalized," Makatura said. "People who live in bear country need to be aware this is the time of year that bears come out of hibernation, and until the plants and seedlings come into full bloom, there's slim pickings for the bears."



Jim Lockwood can be reached at jlockwood@starledger.com or (973) 383-0516.

Any news on the Bear that killed miniature horse in Sussex County ? Did they kill it yet, or has it been back again? Just wondering since I have not heard any follow-up stories. Thanks for any info.

The bear is still at large but get this...The bear group and anti hunting groups like them are saying the bear was set up! LOL! They are saying the Fish & Wildlife people set the bear up so they can have a bear hunt in NJ! Can you believe these people?!

The BEAR group and NJARA have long histories of harassing victims of bear attacks. This is typical.

Andover animal's owner reports critical phone calls to cops

By Matt Manochio, Daily Record

ANDOVER TWP. - A woman whose miniature horse was killed and partially eaten by a black bear last week said Monday that she's getting critical phone calls from the bruin's sympathizers.

Judy Burns, 43, told police Sunday that she received four or five anonymous phone calls criticizing her for wanting state officials to kill the bear that killed her 31-inch-tall horse, Phantom.

"I'm totally aggravated that people would turn around and make me the bad guy," Burns said during an interview at her Stickles Pond Road farm.

"'Bears need to eat, too,'" she recounted one of the callers saying, along with, "'How do you know it's going to be the bear that killed your horse?'"

She said she was also labeled a "bear killer."

Burns said she's been a veterinary technician for 23 years and has helped rehabilitate wildlife. Some of the animals on her nine-acre farm are creatures she took in because they were sick or hurt.

Township police Detective Harry Kinney confirmed Burns' account.

"She did report that she was getting annoying phone calls," Kinney said, adding that the calls could be considered harassment if they were repeatedly made by the same person. He said the phone company now will be monitoring the calls she receives.

Burns said she's also recording the license plates of unfamiliar vehicles that stop near her farm.

"God forbid, if it can carry (250) pounds up a hill, it can carry off a kid," she said about the bear hauling away the miniature horse.

West Milford resident Lynda Smith, who heads the Bear Education and Resource Group, an organization that opposes bear hunts, said she doesn't condone the types of calls Burns received.

"Absolutely not, it's nothing we condone," Smith said. "It's nobody that I'm aware of."

Smith said she sympathizes with Burns because of her loss, but said there are no guarantees that any bear trapped at the farm would be the bear that made off with Phantom.

"There are probably several bears in the area. Setting a trap and killing the bear, you're not going to know if you got the right bear," Smith said.

"It's a fact of life when you live in close proximity to wildlife, stuff happens. We do our best to prevent them," Smith said about such incidents, noting that many farms use electrified fencing, as Burns did.

The incident unfolded Thursday morning when Burns noticed Phantom wasn't in his paddock, which is surrounded by a wooden fence as well as an outer, electrified fence. She walked up a steep, muddy hill to look for him and found his mauled body.

Bear tracks were found in the mud in the paddock and in the snow where the miniature horse's body was found.

"I didn't label it a category one bear, the state did," Burns said, referring to the state Department of Environmental Protection's classification of the bruin. Because the bear killed livestock state workers will kill it if it is caught.

State workers set a barrel-shaped culvert trap in hopes of catching the bear. Burns said the bruin has resisted the bacon and molasses that was put in the trap, so she will try adding doughnuts to the bait.

Burns said the bear believed to be the culprit returned late Thursday night. While standing on all fours it was at least four-and-a-half feet tall at the shoulder, she said.

When it walked to the barn where her horses are kept and stood on its rear legs to look inside, "I couldn't see the doorway," she said.

She called police but the bruin lumbered away before they arrived.

Burns and state workers wonder how the enormous bear eluded detection by the other animals when it went after Phantom.

Burns' house is a few hundred feet away from the barn and between the two buildings is a small pond inhabited by geese. The geese usually honk loudly when a strange animal or vehicle comes on the property but they didn't make a sound Thursday, she said. None of her four full-sized horses or two other mini-horses made a sound, nor did her dogs.

"If there's anything out of whack, the animals start yelling," she said.

Even more bizarre was the bear's ability to break Phantom's neck, haul his 250-pound body over the wooden fence without breaking any boards, underneath the electrified fence and 400 yards up a hill, all silently, she said.

The bear now has been to her property twice and she said it's important for her to see the animal trapped because it likely will be back again and she fears for her family and the other animals.

Misty, a pregnant mini-horse who's due in a month, was unharmed last week, but "If I would have found her ripped open and a baby laying there …" Burns said before trailing off.

Her husband was issued a depredation permit Friday, enabling him to shoot and kill the bear if it returns.

Until then all of Burns' horses, goats, sheep, chickens, peafowl, dogs and rabbits, are being locked away securely at night. Her three children - Valerie, 8, Danny, 9, and Kellie, 5, stay close by her side.

She said Danny was most hurt by Phantom's death because he planned to show the little horse during contests.

"He really took it the hardest," she said.

Welcome to NJ hunting and politics!
http://www.nj.com/sports/ledger/index.ssf?/ba ...

Thanks for the Updates Jersey Jim! Please keep us update if you here anything more about the bear. Thanks.

Cash strapped cities sue gun manufacturers for making guns and endangering their citizens. Mrs Burns should sue those who stopped the bear hunt starting with the pathetic Campbell, then those who fought the bear hunt. They are accessories after the fact for creating a hostile environment for small horses. Mrs. Burns walks the talk in helping animals, rather than the lip service provided by the bear hunt objectors.

The bear is still free as of April 1st... The state is going to keep the trap at the farm for one more week.....
Yesterday a dog in Rockaway NJ was mauled by a bear and a second dog was attacked in Mountain Lake NJ....
Good thing we don't have a bear problem in NJ!

N.J. bear sightings doubled over '04
As development, mating bring out more in Morris, many migrating southward

By Rob Seman, Daily Record

Even female bears need a little privacy, but in coming weeks humans might be getting a little less of it, state wildlife officials said.

It's mating season, and as female bears begin pushing their young out of their dens in order to mate, state wildlife officials warn that the year-old male bears may become more visible in people's backyards.

http://www.dailyrecord.com/news/articles/news ...

Last year Ontario spent more than $5.3million on bear over population problems that resulted from the cancellation of spring hunting. New Jersey sportsman are paying for problems caused by bears in our state. Everytime a problem arises with a bear, it's not the general taxpayer who foots the bill, it's hunters and anglers, which is why the Division of Fish and Wildlife is going broke!!!

Thanks for the Update Jersey Jim!

In Stillwater, tales grow of Bear-zilla
A beast with 7-inch wide paws spreads fear as it dents a trap and rips off a steel door
Thursday, May 26, 2005
BY MIKE FRASSINELLI
Star-Ledger Staff
Even by northwestern New Jersey standards, this bear is legendary.

http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/jersey/index.ss ...

Bears on the prowl everywhere
This mating season, experts warn of encounters across the state
Saturday, June 04, 2005
BY BRIAN T. MURRAY
Star-Ledger Staff
Looking for love in all the wrong places, New Jersey's black bears are winding up in Sussex County homes, urban Middlesex County neighborhoods and even swimming Sandy Hook Bay as their annual mating season unfolds.

It's no surprise to experts at the state Division of Fish and Wildlife. They issued a warning in April to every one of the state's 21 counties, the most expansive alert since the once-scarce bruins began rebounding in the Garden State 30 years ago.

http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/jersey/index.ss ...

http://www.nj.com/news/hunterdon/index.ssf?/b ...

"A horse on a River Road farm in Readington Township survived a bear attack.

Sgt. Michael Kaulius of the township police responded to a call about a possible bear attack on a horse May 21 around 11:45 a.m. He said he saw four scratch marks on the horse's side, probably made by a claw. He referred the matter to the state Division of Fish and Wildlife.

A spokesman for the Department of Environmental Protection said that wildlife experts determined that a black bear attacked the horse, which needed stitches for its wounds. "

It just keeps getting better and better!!!!!!!!

Police kill bear after 2 entered home in Vernon
Wednesday, June 08, 2005
BY STEFANIE COHEN
Star-Ledger Staff
A 100-pound black bear was shot and killed by Vernon police yesterday after officers responded to a report of two bruins sliding open a screen door to get inside the kitchen of a home in Barry Lakes section of town.

The incident occurred at 2:29 p.m. when resident Margo Spilotras had just finished taking a shower and heard crashing and crunching noises coming from the back of her home. Dressed in only a towel, she ran to the kitchen, where she saw two bears, a 400-pound mother bear and her cub, standing in the room.

http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/sussex/index.ss ...

Wow Good thing NJ does not have a Bear Problem!

Thanks for the update Jim!

It's really funny.... These are just the stories I find in the bigger papers. The more local papers are full of bear stories this year! They are everywhere!!!!!! They have no fear of humans and actually seek out places humans are to find food!!!! Can you imagine walking into your kitchen and finding not one but TWO bears going through your cabinets and garbage??!!!! One of them at or over 400lbs.!! If this isn't a "bear problem" I am scared to death what it's going to be like when we DO have a "bear problem"!!!!!!! LOL!
What if a child had walked into that kitchen? What if a child or adult walked around the back of that house and went to enter through that door cutting off the bears escape route??? Is that what it's going to take before they realize that there is a problem?? Man I hope not... I would hate to see someone get killed because of someone trying to go further in his political career!! The people who study the bears say there is a need for hunting... The people who make the rules (and pay those people to study the bears) say lets try and keep those voting anti's happy and waite to see what happens.... How can people be so blind???
Sorry for all the venting.... Jim

I agree with everything you said Jim! Thanks for taking the time to update us on the Bear problems in NJ! Please keep us up todate!

And another!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thursday, June 9, 2005
By BRENDAN BERLS

Herald Staff Writer

In the second such incident in two days, a black bear clawed its way into a house in Vernon on Wednesday morning, driving the frightened homeowner to barricade herself in the basement until police arrived.

http://www.njherald.com/283496108174620.php

Yes Jim I read about that last story in my local paper!

Bear Story In MY Local Paper

Yep....You guessed it....another one

Family in Fredon frightened by bear
3-year-old and mom have close encounter
Friday, June 10, 2005
BY STEFANIE COHEN AND BRIAN T. MURRAY
Star-Ledger Staff
A face-to-face meeting between a 3-year-old boy and a 200-pound black bear outside his Fredon home yesterday left the child and his mother shaken, but no one injured.

http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/sussex/index.ss ...

Man Jim there's a new story everyday! When will it end? Thank!

I told you it is totally out of control here!
And for all you "Bear Group" people who love to scream "there has never been a death caused by a bear in NJ this is for you:

A Look Back: Death of a Teenager
Editor’s Note: In honor of the 250th anniversary of Sussex County, which was established in 1753, The New Jersey Herald will be printing a historic detail each day through the end of the year.

More than 150 years ago, a teenage boy fell victim to a black bear. Alden S. Rose, 16, who lived with his brother’s family about 15 miles northeast of Newton, was sent to a corn field some distance from the house to retrieve roasting ears. However, when the youth did not return in as timely a fashion as expected, the family became uneasy. His brother and sister-in-law mounted horses at the end of the day and went in the same direction the youth had gone.

Upon arriving at the field, they found a portion of the corn considerably broken and trampled down. While examining the trampled area of the field, a large black bear suddenly emerged from an adjoining thicket and headed straight for the couple.

The woman’s horse was frightened by the fast-approaching black bear and bucked its rider off. However, her husband managed to pull the woman onto his horse and they rode away from the area.

Several neighbors gathered together the next morning and went out to the same field. There, they found the remains of Alden S. Rose, who was partially eaten by the bear.

A hunting party was organized, but the aggressive bear was not found.

Source: The New Jersey Herald, Sept. 11, 1852, edition.

I can help with this problem !!

Me too.......

Making progress

Jersey vs. bears: The gloves come off

DEP chief wants a hunt, and politics be damned

Wednesday, June 15, 2005

The black bears of New Jersey have gone too far.

Maybe it was the bear that showed up in Woodbridge, where they hadn't seen one for about a century.

Maybe it was the bear that killed a miniature horse and ate half of it. Or the one that entered a home by opening a kitchen door, shocking the lady of the house as she stepped out of the shower in a towel.

Maybe it was the bear that cornered a 3-year-old last week in Fredon. The boy was rescued only after his mother charged past the bear to grab him.

Whatever did it, the state has finally had enough.

The bear hunt is back. Expect it this fall, and for many falls after that.

At least that's the expectation of Bradley Campbell, head of the Department of Environmental Protection, who will make the decision.

"We need to reduce the population, and that's likely to include a hunt," Campbell says. "All indications are there will be a hunt this fall, and it probably will be an annual feature thereafter."

Sound the alarms. The second great battle over bear hunting in New Jersey is about to begin.

The last time Campbell approved a hunt, for six days in 2003, the animal-rights crowd came after him in a most personal way.

They camped outside his house at night, burning candles. They threatened to disrupt his wedding. One woman was even hauled before a judge after she threatened to hurt Campbell's mother at her nursing home.

Campbell expects the hills to ring with moral indignation once again, but this time he's decided to push back.

"The extremes in this debate are never going to be satisfied," he says.

Campbell doesn't have the specifics worked out yet, and there will be a series of public hearings before any final decision is made.

But with the bear population growing, and the animals getting more bold, it's clear that he wants to let the hunters back in the game.

That can't come soon enough for Roseann Francavilla, who lives in the woods of Fredon with her husband and two children.

She was unloading groceries from her car last week when a bear walked out of the woods and cornered her boy, Sammy.

Francavilla knows the rules. Her garbage is covered, and in a locked shed. She never lets her boy wander off in the woods, and she's told him to scream if he ever sees a bear.

But this time, a bear sneaked up while she was in the kitchen, and the boy was a few steps outside the door, near her SUV.

Suddenly she heard her son scream. When she looked up, she saw him sitting in the driver's seat, where he had fled. The bear was moving toward him, a few feet away, and the door was open.

Francavilla tucked her infant under one arm and charged past the bear to grab Sammy.

"I just wanted to get to him," she said. "I was really scared. And he was screaming and crying. Just terror on his face."

That story had a happy ending. Francavilla backed into the house, the bear following her each step, and locked the door. But she is still shaken by it.

"This bear was 200 pounds," she says. "He could have really mauled my boy."

After the 2003 hunt, Campbell came under tremendous pressure to cancel the hunt for 2004.

Gov. James E. McGreevey didn't want another hunt, especially during what he thought would be the run-up to his re-election campaign. The Legislature was considering bills to ban it. And protesters were promising to gear up for another fight.

Campbell caved under the pressure, according to Scott Ellis, head of the state's Fish and Game Council, which favored the hunts.

"He invited me to the Trenton Marriott for drinks after the hunt was over," Ellis recalls. "And he proceeded to talk about how we are entering an election cycle, and he didn't want outside money coming in from animal-rights groups working against McGreevey's re-election."

Campbell did cancel the 2004 hunt, but he says it was for legitimate reasons. The bear population statistics were unclear, he says. And he wanted to answer critics by showing he was doing everything he could short of hunting, like experimenting with birth control and more-secure garbage containers.

"I was cognizant of having to defend the hunt," he says. "If you want to characterize that as political, that's fine."

This year, though, Campbell is moving back towards the hunt. He knows it will be another big fight. And he knows they'll come after him personally.

But this is a public safety issue to Campbell now. A child was killed a few years ago across the New York border in the Catskills when a black bear cub grabbed the infant from his stroller. And he worries that it could happen here.

If that means he has a big fight on his hand this summer, then so be it.

"It comes with the job," he says.

The boldness of these bears, it seems, has put some steel back in the commissioner's spine.

Tom Moran's column appears Wednesdays and Fridays. He may be reached at tmoran@starledger.com or (973) 392-1823.

A busy bear day in NJ

http://cbsnewyork.com/topstories/topstoriesny ...

"New Jersey's battle with the bears is producing results. Wednesday morning three bears were trapped. One is the animal that scared a three-year-old boy last week in Fredon."

This is the kind of warped thinking we are up against...

Bears getting agency's help in their move south
Published in the Asbury Park Press 06/14/05
BY STUART CHAIFETZ

The Asbury Park Press reported June 6 that the New Jersey Division of Fish and Wildlife removed a black bear from Woodbridge and relocated him to a wildlife area in Millstone and Upper Freehold. This revelation confirmed what many of us had long surmised: The division was deliberately taking bears from the north and moving them to the south.

Hunters would have us believe that bears showing up in Monmouth and Ocean counties walked there from Sussex or Passaic counties, through the most congested and developed land in the nation and somehow bypassing 4 million to 5 million people. No more must we listen to these ludicrous prevarications. A source no less than the director of the division has confirmed that bears don't make the journey through natural means, but instead get to the south by being driven there.

To understand why the division has done this, you need to understand what the division is - a state agency dedicated to providing recreational killing for hunters. Not only are most division biologists hunters themselves, but their salaries are dependent upon the sale of hunting licenses. This conflict of interest is as clear as it is astounding - the state agency that should be protecting wildlife instead profits from their slaughter.

With bears, however, it is this and more, for both the division and the hunters were outraged when the bear hunt was called off last year. They are doing everything they can to make sure there will be a hunt this year. To do this, they want to generate as much controversy as possible. It is for this reason alone that they are moving bears south.

Manipulating the public is how the division operates. Earlier in this decade, the division manipulated data to cause a bear hunt, and it is doing the same thing now by transferring bears to Monmouth County.

Jack Spoto of Freehold, president of the United Bowhunters of New Jersey, wrote a commentary in which he intentionally misled people about bears. ("Politicians to blame for migrating bears," June 8.) In our entire recorded history, black bears have never killed anyone in our state. To imply or state otherwise is to lie. This is even more shameful when you realize it is the hunter who is more dangerous than the bear.

To paraphrase Spoto regarding bears, hunters have been responsible for many injuries and deaths. Do you know what an armed hunter is afraid of in New Jersey? Nothing.

This last point was tragically proven two months ago. A hunter in Vernon (which is bear country) got into an argument with his girlfriend. In his condominium, which was decorated with numerous mounts of animals he had killed, he placed his shotgun to her chest and pulled the trigger. This was not the first time a hunter has killed. As long as their ideology remains - that problems are to be solved at the barrel end of a gun - it will not be the last one.

I reject the creed of the gun and the bloodshed that ensues from it, especially when it comes to how we manage our wildlife. This is why I support the sterilization studies under way that will allow us to keep bear populations in check without killing them.

A few months before the bear hunt in 2003, while visiting friends in northern New Jersey, I met a bear who lived peacefully with her neighbors. It was a magnificent experience - not just that I was within a few feet of this wonderful animal but that the residents there loved her, and loved having her as a neighbor.

On one of the last days of the hunt, she was shot in the back by a hunter. Wracked with pain, she made her way home to the people she knew would care for her. They found her hiding in a tree, her blood pouring down the bark. They gave her the medical care needed to survive. She lived, but how many others, shot, wounded and crippled, died torturous deaths all because some greedy hunter wanted her skin and body as a trophy?

This is the nature of hunting. This is why it must ever be fought against, and why we must not allow another bear hunt.

Stuart Chaifetz is director of the Animal Protection Political Action Committee, Cherry Hill.

Cool pics:
http://www.newjerseyhunter.com/forum.php?a=vtopic&t=1248

Bears hit the deck for breakfast
Authorities chase mom and three cubs from Highland Lakes home
Tuesday, June 21, 2005
BY JOE MOSZCZYNSKI
Star-Ledger Staff
A mother bear and two of her three cubs were tranquilized, tagged and then chased back into the woods after they were caught having a Sunday breakfast of trash on a deck at a Highland Lakes home.

http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/sussex/index.ss ...
http://www.dailyrecord.com/news/articles/news ...
http://www.njherald.com/286644787459371.php

Trooper kills aggressive Sussex bear
Friday, June 24, 2005
Associated Press
A state trooper shot and killed a 250-pound black bear that was acting aggressively and refused to leave a heavily populated area of Sussex Borough yesterday morning.

State Police were called to the scene at 8:30 a.m. after receiving a report of a bear "right in the middle of downtown," Capt. Al Della Fave said.

http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/newjer ...

http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/sussex/index.ss ...

It's that time of the year when young bear explore new territory and cause problems. Happening in PA and just about any other state that has a bear population. Most that are causing the problems are young males looking for a place to call home and can cover many miles a day finding it.

Hey JerseyJim did you here about this story? I guess they were trying to keep it quiet! I though you would like to read this. This is not to far from where I live!

http://www.recordonline.com/archive/2005/08/03/bear.htm

Bear Attack

rebbie, I did see read that story...I actually saw the video the one camper took of the bear nipping at his friends sleeping bag... Thanks for sharing it though! There has been quite a few more stories since my last post but I've been a bit too busy to post them... I'll try and keep up from now on...LOL!