Bill in Florida would allow people to kill bears on their property without permits

Share
Florida black bear
A Florida Black Bear rifles through a garbage can. Photo by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation commission via Flickr

©2023 The News Service of Florida

People would be allowed to kill bears on their property without permits when they feel threatened or think it is necessary for protection, under a bill filed Wednesday by Sen. Corey Simon, R-Tallahassee.

The bill (SB 632), proposed for the legislative session that will start Jan. 9, would require people to notify the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission within 24 hours of killing bears.

They also would be prohibited from possessing or selling the bear carcasses. The proposal also wouldn’t apply to people who provoke bears.

Simon’s bill is identical to a measure (HB 87) filed in September by Rep. Jason Shoaf, R-Port St. Joe.

Simon and Shoaf in September heard from Franklin County Sheriff A.J. Smith and Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officials over concerns about increased interactions between people and bears in Smith’s rural county southwest of Tallahassee.

Shoaf endorsed the state holding a bear hunt after Smith raised the issue as a way to help manage the area’s bear population.

Bear hunts, which have not been held since 2015, have long been controversial. The 2015 hunt was expected to result in 320 bears being killed in one week.

But after two days, 304 were dead.

A 2017 estimate placed the bear population in Florida at 4,050.

Kate MacFall, Florida state director of the Humane Society of the United States, has said the focus should be improving trash management and education to help reduce human-bear interactions.

Leave a Reply

  • (will not be published)

XHTML: You can use these tags: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>

You may also like

student meal
Next school year Hillsborough public schools are offering free meals

Hillsborough Public Schools are offering students free meals for the...

Correspondence Through Poetry. A Mind-Numbing Week.

Father Verses Sons: A Correspondence in Poems by Herbert Gold...

The sound of change: Music’s influence on anti-war and human rights movements

Throughout history, music has served as a powerful catalyst for...

a man in a tye dye shirt talking on a radio microphone
Recreational pot for Florida is on the ballot this fall—let’s talk about it

In four months, Florida voters have the opportunity to vote...

Ways to listen

WMNF is listener-supported. That means we don't advertise like a commercial station, and we're not part of a university.

Ways to support

WMNF volunteers have fun providing a variety of needed services to keep your community radio station alive and kickin'.

Follow us on Instagram

The Skinny
Player position: