Tallahassee, FL – A Tallahassee circuit judge says he will not cancel the state-sanctioned bear hunt at the end of the month.
A Seminole County group called Speak Up Wekiva and 10 other groups asked a judge to grant an emergency injunction to stop the hunt that is scheduled to begin on October 24th, but the judge refused to do so following a hearing on Thursday.
Those groups and the Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission argued their respective sides in front of the judge during a 4 and a half hour hearing.
Speak Up Wekiva lawyer Ralf Brooks says the state wildlife commission should never have authorized the hunt at this time, saying that FWC commissioners are acting as a “private hunt club” and calling them a “runaway” commission. Brooks argued that FWC should have delayed at least a year until the statewide bear count is finished.
Ryan Osbourne – an attorney for the FWC – told Judge George Reynolds that hunting is good for bears as a species.
Wildlife biologist Steven Stringham – who earned a doctorate studying grizzlies in Alaska – told the judge that the hunt is bad news for bears.
Reynolds did say while giving his ruling that FWC should’ve done a better job establishing ground rules and quotas for the hunt.
Florida outlawed bear hunting in 1994 as the species grew endangered, but FWC staff argued successfully to the commission that the species needs to be hunted again as part of a management plan to reduce human-bear conflicts.
Volusia County ranks among the highest in the state in terms of the number of human-bear interactions, especially in neighborhoods.
The hearing happened after Florida Governor Rick Scott refused to consider plans to stop the hunt.
A total of 320 dead bears will be allowed state-wide during the week-long hunt and FWC has promised to stop the hunt sooner if the quota is met before that.
Over 2,200 hunting permits have been issued by FWC. Current state estimates have the bear population at around 3,000.
Florida News Network contributed to this story.
Copyright 2015 Southern Stone Communications.