NJ Bear Hunt

Stu Chaifetz posted the following:

From the Star-Ledger, December 10, 2003

“And in a sad footnote, morning rush-hour commuters on Route 23 in West Milford got a front-row view of the hunt, when a mortally wounded cub staggered out of the woods, lay down with his head resting on the road, and died.

“It just broke my heart, sitting there in traffic watching him die,” said Kari Casper, a fourth-grade teacher from Vernon who was on her way to work in Lincoln Park.

“He was just a little guy and looked so lonely, lying there with snow on his paws,” said Casper, who said she cried as she watched the bear for about 20 minutes as she sat in traffic.

West Milford police said they received at least 25 calls around 7:30 a.m. about the injured cub.

“When we got there, he was dead and there were all these cars pulled on the side of the road and people crying,” police dispatcher Lorraine Steins said. “I feel like we should apologize to the bears.”

You can contact the NJ Governor for allowing the first bear hunt in 30 years in NJ to take place.

Governor McGreevey
609-292-3454
(609) 292-5181
(609) 777- 4082
(609) 777-0357

The New Jersey Bear groups are:

The Bear Education and Resource Group, Lynda Smith, Director, PO Box 918, Hewitt, NJ 07421. Phone: (973) 853-BEAR, Email: savenjbears@hotmail.com and NJARA, New Jersey Animal Rights Alliance Angie Metler, President, njara@nj-ara.org

Honor and Nonviolence, Stu Chaifetz, President: www.hnva.net/bears.html

C.A.S.H. attended the Bear Slaughter Protest arranged by the above organizations in Waywayanda State Park on December 13th, 2003. It was highly emotionally charged. There was a huge turnout for the bears on a freezing day and there were activists who stood guard at known dens for days and nights.