Why was this year's bear hunting season cancelled?

To the Editor: Why was this year’s bear hunting season cancelled? The answer is simple. Jon Corzine is DEP commissioner Lisa Jackson’s boss, who is opposed to hunting, and she is not going to go against his wishes because it will jeopardize her job, plain and simple. The bottom line is this: too many bears, not enough habitat to support them. The bear population is growing and their habitat is stable or shrinking. Bears competing for finite food sources which fluctuate from year to year are forced into human contact looking for food. Garbage control, while an important step to keep bears as well as rats, raccoons and other critters out of your garbage, will only do so much to be a part of a long-term solution to our bear problems in this state. Anti-hunting groups will tell you bears “in the deep woods” that have no contact with humans will be hunted is pure bull, plain and simple. New Jersey does not border the Yukon. A black bear has a home range from 20 to 80 square miles putting every bear in human contact somewhere along the line. The media is often fond of saying “the bears are safe” when hunting season is cancelled, but nothing can be further from the truth. Scores of bears are killed by cars and shot by landowners who are tired of bears damaging farm fields, killing livestock, destroying sheds and fences and are quietly buried in the back 40 under the cover of darkness, and after all can you blame them? Jon Corzine and DEP boss Lisa Jackson don’t suffer, but farmers, landowners and the bears do. Hunting bears puts them in the asset column because hunters pay the state money for licences, to wisely utilize surplus bears for the hide and meat. Ever day, our society mass produces dead animals neatly packaged in stores for us to eat yet some of the very same consumers who buy dead animals say there “appalled” by hunting. They also won’t buy a fur coat, but will trap a mouse or a rat and throw it in the trash. It is an example of trying to make yourself feel good instead of facing facts. Our governor should listen to the wildlife professionals at the division of fish and wildlife, instead of crazed animal activists who often break the law to terrorize citizens to see things their way. Hunters hunt successfully under the close scrutiny of science and therefore have made the United States the conservation model for the entire world. Eric Bunk, North Jersey Area Director Ted Nugent, United Sportsmen of America West Milford