Florida bear hunt ends after 295 kills in two days

Still, the number of dead bears did exceed limits in specific areas.

The penalties in both cases are second-degree misdemeanors if the hunter is a first-time offender.

“This hunt is completely unnecessary and it’s not supported by science or by public sentiment”, said Kate MacFall, Florida state director for the Humane Society of the United States, a leading animal rights group.

Commission Division of Law Enforcement Maj.

Remaining hunters have until Monday at noon to report their kills.

Florida’s bear hunt ended quickly, and deadly.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission posted a statement on its website saying it had closed the 2015 hunt because it was approaching an agency “objective” of 320 bears overall.

“The real raw fact of the matter of losing these bears is devastating to many of us in the community”, Emily Ruff of the Florida School of Holistic Living told the Orlando Sentinel newspaper.

“We are confident that this hunt got us to what we were achieving”. Diane Eggeman of the FWC said, “We texted and tweeted, we provided the information online, we had a telephone hotline”.

By Sunday evening, with the casualty count nearing 300 and photos of bullet-ridden bears all over newspapers and the web, wildlife officials called the whole thing off.

“Mayhem followed by long-term disaster are the predictable results of not stopping the hunt for the entire state”, said Frank Jackalone, Florida staff director for the Sierra Club, and Debbie Matthews, its Florida Chapter Chair.

The hunt held Saturday and Sunday in designated parts of the state was open to sportsmen using firearms or archery equipment. On the first day of hunting, 81 bears were killed in the Panhandle – more than twice the limit of 40 that had been set for the region.

Duval said FWC officers also are continuing investigations into instances of leaving bait to attract bears, which was not permitted under the state hunting rules. “It shows you they did not know what they were getting into when they started the hunt”.

Other areas where the hunt was allowed were the South region, which includes Broward, Collier, Hendry, Lee, Miami-Dade, Monroe, and Palm Beach counties; the Central region, which includes the St. Johns River watershed to the Ocala National Forest; and the North region, which goes from Jacksonville west to Hamilton and Suwannee counties. More than 200 bears are killed by cars on Florida’s roads each year, state officials said.

“I was going to go out there today, but they shut it down”, he said Monday. Maybe there are a lot fewer bears in those areas. He said a hunter in Central Florida was warned because he brought in an 88-pound bear.