Murphy blows it on bear hunt

A bleeding heart liberal probably has no business overseeing the harsh realities of controlling a bear population. It's a balancing act to both protect and maintain a certain number of bears and address the concern of safety for humans and damage to their property. The NJDEP Division of Fish & Wildlife has done an excellent job. The upper brass, the guy in the expensive sneakers and suit, is ignoring them.

Gov. Phil Murphy ordered a stop to bear hunts on state owned land. He could do this by executive order without having to go through the legislature. This cuts out about 40% of the land on which the hunt had been allowed. This week he announced our state will look for more nonlethal means to manage the black bear population. This will include better garbage management policies and upping the number of conservation officers and information sessions.

He has no idea what he's doing.

Hiring more people to stand in public libraries and tell people to not put bird feeders on their lawns is not going to help. And garbage management? Please. He should actually listen to this radio station he hates so much once in awhile. He would have heard countless stories from real people living in the real world who have stood and watched from their living room windows as black bears quickly figured out how to break through some of the best bear proof garbage cans on the market.

Here are some facts.

Last year, then Gov.-elect Murphy said, "In the past, the bear hunt has been expanded without local input or evidence that it is effective at controlling the bear population."

His own department, the Div. of Fish & Wildlife conducted public hearings since 2003. No evidence of being effective? Are you kidding me? The numbers bear out fewer encounters between humans and bears, less property damage, etc. This didn't happen magically, and this is not evidence that the bear hunts are not needed. To the contrary this is evidence the bear hunts are working. This is exactly what we wanted to see.

Around 4,000 bears were taken by hunters since the annual bear hunts began. Consider an average litter is 2.9 cubs. Of 4,000 bears killed half were probably sows. Had the hunt not happened, those sows would have given birth to 6,000 cubs. And so on. And so on. A dangerous trend of bears losing their fear of humans had been growing. We've seen that turn around. With Murphy taking away 40% of the land from hunters, and eventually wanting to stop the hunts entirely, the population will rise, the bears will spread out, and their fear of humans will once again wane.

Now he's preaching the false gospel of non-lethal methods. What kind of leader doesn't listen to his own experts? About a decade ago, the DEP reviewed "An Analysis of the Feasibility of Using Fertility Control to Manage N.J. Black Bear Populations." The experts concluded it was highly unlikely to be feasible. Earlier, a contraception project using six female bears at Six Flags Wild Safari ended in failure when they found the drug was causing tumors in males. Other states who studied the hell out of this issue also found birth control to be too expensive, unfeasible and ineffective.

Please don't even bring up relocation. We already have bears in all 21 counties of the state. It's not going to work. The bear hunts have been effective. Animal rights activists can whine all they want about it being cold-blooded murder and preach that it's our fault for encroaching into what had been black bear territory. When these activists put their signs down and go home, are they going into a house? If so, they're hypocrites. If they believe we're the problem they should walk the walk and live in a tree or a cave.

It's a harsh reality. Hunting is necessary. Nonlethal means won't work. His own experts have told Murphy this and he won't listen to them. I suppose when you're a rich governor who thinks working stiff taxpayers' pockets never run out it's easy to ignore the math behind the bear issue as well.

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