‘It ain’t over till’ . . . black bears are permanently protected

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“No bear hunt in 2021.”  Those few words brought joy to the countless people who have fought for years to hear them.  New Jersey’s record for black bear hunts is inconsistent at best, from annual-or-more hunts to no hunt. 

This year marks the end of Gov. Murphy’s first term, before which, he made a campaign promise to end the bear hunt . . . and then proceeded to weasel out of that vow with no change at all or easily-circumvented half measures designed to please everyone.  No one was satisfied.  And hundreds of bears died.

Now, with Murphy’s re-election campaign underway, came the recent news of no hunt.  Does that mean our governor has come to like bears?  Does he feel belated regret at the earlier bear slaughter on his watch?  Has he “seen the (humane) light”?

No.

“It’s directly related to our relentless work,” says Angi Metler, executive director of the Animal Protection League of NJ, an organization that has long fought for NJ’s black bears and against bear hunts.   

This time around, among other things, APLNJ

·         formed an active bear coalition with other groups also against the hunt;   

·         assured there were animal advocates everywhere Murphy went, talking about bears and   challenging him on bear hunts;     

·         reached out to higher-up members of Murphy’s staff;

·         argued for bears on billboards and airplane banners.   

“We didn’t take ‘no’ for an answer,” Metler says, adding, “This is the work we’ve done for almost 30 years.  We never gave up and we never will – not till the bears are permanently protected and we’re not bouncing from governor to governor.”

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For her and APLNJ, the next crucial step is implementing a non-lethal bear management plan for New Jersey.  Other states have led in this effort, and NJ can learn from them.

So there’s much more vital work to be done for our bears.  Metler hopes only that a particular after-effect of success -- that some activists celebrate, but then go away – won’t happen this time.  This bear-hunt fight isn’t over yet!  

As for this fall’s gubernatorial election, nothing could be easier: simply compare what Murphy and his rival say about the bear hunt.  That should settle it for all of us who abhor it.    

Babies in the burbs

It’s baby animal season and a recent story about baby-rescuers includes new and surprising details about how deer mamas keep their babies safe before and after they leave temporarily to forage for food. But: what if a doe goes missing instead of returning to her baby?

                                      APLNJ image

In that case, for some lucky fawns in an area north of New York City, members of Animal Nation, a rescue group based in Rye, NY, step in . . . in unbelievable doe-imitating ways.  And they must do so swiftly and silently so the saved baby deer doesn’t imprint and think s/he’s a human. That would make it very hard to release the animal back into the wild.

There are also baby groundhogs, hawks, great horned owls, squirrels, waterfowl, and more, all recipients of help from Animal Nation and its affiliates.  The organization president, Patrick Moore, is an unpaid volunteer who “can’t help helping the animals” – if necessary, treating overflow babies-in-need in his bathroom! 

And there, for instance, he may keep orphaned fawns together, assuring that they bond with their own kind.  

Moore’s also a full-time firefighter who, because of his work for animals and people, may get just 4 hours of sleep a night during baby-animal season.    https://tinyurl.com/3mdfnjah

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