For taxidermist, bear hunt means brisk business

Sussex County - At Buckshot Taxidermy, business is brisk. And furry. With New Jersey’s bear hunt winding down, owner Mark Van Leuven is a busy man. He already had 12 black bear carcasses to skin, salt and send off for tanning as of Friday morning, with at least six more expected at his Sussex County, taxidermy studio. For businesses like his, which turn dead bears into living room rugs and hunt room trophies, the six-day bear hunt that ends Saturday is a welcome shot in the arm. ``It’s a big thing for me,’’ he said of the hunt, the state’s second in 35 years. ``It makes my year a little bit easier. It’s more work, but it’s more money.’’ The hunt has netted at least 267 black bears so far, many of them in the hilly, densely wooded ``bear country’’ of Sussex County, just south of the New York border. Many of those hunters will take their kills to Van Leuven and other taxidermists. Van Leuven stuffs deer, fish, wild boars, African game and _ occasionally _ domestic pets. For bears, he charges $580 for a wall mount, $800 for a rug and $2,500 or more for a full mount, with the life-size bear stuffed and standing. The work includes skinning the animal, salting and drying the hide and then sending it to a commercial tannery. For mounted bears, customers choose a plastic foam form to suit the pose they want the bear in, and Van Leuven or his one helper put the form inside the skin and pull it taut before adding glass eyes and replacing the animal’s tongue and teeth with artificial ones, for longevity’s sake. Altogether, the process takes 10 months or more, he said. ``Everything I get in here now gets returned next year. You get 100 deer heads, a couple hundred fish, the bears, all at once, it gets busy,’’ said Van Leuven, who estimates that 95 percent of successful bear hunters will use a taxidermist for their kills. Even if they do, they can still take meat from the carcass. The hunt, which was authorized by New Jersey wildlife officials to cut the state’s growing black bear population, is taking place in the northwestern portion of the state. It was OK’d as part of a multiyear management plan that aims to curtail the rising number of interactions between humans and bears, according to the state Division of Fish and Wildlife. ``This is a conservative approach to beginning to reduce the population in a very deliberative manner,’’ said Martin McHugh, director of the division. ``We also think there’ll be a reduction in nuisance complaints as a result of this.’’ Animal rights activists oppose the hunt, calling it inhumane and unnecessary, saying the state should be training people to be more careful with their garbage instead of killing bears for seeking food in it. Margo Spilotras, who had a close encounter with a black bear last June, understands that viewpoint. But she believes a hunt was the right thing to do. ``At this point, there’s just too much population of them and they have no natural predators, so it’s really the only way,’’ said Spilotras, 40, who lives in Vernon, near Wawayanda State Park. She found a 400-pound bear and a cub in her kitchen one day last summer, eating Cheerios. The bears fled when police arrived, but a second cub in the yard charged a police officer and was shot. Bears in the neighborhood are nothing new, but they are getting bolder, she said.