A bear dies in Trenton

A bear found yesterday in Trenton- near the offices of the state DEP- was killed, and was the first bruin killed under the no-tolerence rules for urban New Jersey.

The Bear Exclusion Zone, which covers heavily urban areas in northeastern New Jersey, also extends westward like a belt across the center of the state to include Mercer County, and it calls for killing bears caught within the boundaries.
But when the Trenton bear was caught by city animal-control agents at 4:30 a.m., some state wildlife authorities questioned the wisdom of the rules even before DEP biologists euthanized the bear seven hours later.
"That bear never should have been killed. It's a waste of the wildlife resource, and it's just bad publicity for the state. The biologists don't want to do this, no one wants this," said Len Wolgast, a member of the state Fish and Game Council, which sets state hunting regulations.
Wolgast co-authored a state bear-management policy last year that included the exclusion-zone rules. But Wolgast said the "red zone" and the euthanasia requirement was a provision placed into the policy by the DEP and its former chief.
"This red zone and other things I hated to see were put into the larger Black Bear Management Policy as a compromise so that we could get the policy together and have DEP Commissioner Bradley Campbell sign off on it," Wolgast explained.
...
"I think it's disingenuous for the council to say the former commissioner
is responsible," DEP spokeswoman Elaine Makatura said yesterday. However, the
Bear Exclusion Zone remains troublesome for animal rights groups,
environmentalists and hunting organizations alike.

Guess that bear hunt didn't help as much as they hoped, huh?

Blaming Campbell won't help anything. Since the policy was put into effect, we have a new DEP commissioner, Lisa Jackson. I've found nothing from her or her office about her position on the bear hunt, but after this incident I hope we find out her stand on the subject.

It's spring; the bears are coming out of hibernation, and they're moving around. This bear was not acting aggressively; it was probably looking for food or a mate, just like most folks who are cruising city streets at 4:30 in the morning.

It's a sad event, nonetheless.

(cross-posted at bluejersey.net)