Governor Murphy’s Bear Hunt Fiasco
BY SUSAN RUSSELL
While campaigning to become NJ’s next Governor, candidate Phil Murphy promised he’d end NJ’s annual black bear hunt. He said he favored non-lethal methods of bear management like bear-proof trash bins. That’s the best way to avoid unwanted human-bear encounters. So we worked hard to get him elected. Naturally we are angry and disappointed that the Governor has failed to deliver on his campaign promise to end NJ’s bear hunt.
Starting next Monday, October 8, hunters will take to the woods to begin their ad hoc slaughter. the NJ Division of Fish and Wildlife is poised to grant 11,000 hunting permits this year so count on lots of armed hunters roaming the woods all week. There’s another hunt planned for December. Murphy said he’d end the hunt and what did NJ get? Two hunts.
But wait. Wasn’t Murphy boasting on Twitter about keeping his promise to end the hunt? Well, yes. But Governor Murphy’s recent Executive Order No. 34 curbing the practice on state land only made no one happy. It was a grand example of wanting to have have your cake and eat it too. And the hunters wasted no time exploiting the Governor’s half-measures.
Facebook threads shows bear hunt activists discussing organized drives of black bears on state lands in order to shoot the animals “on the line” or on adjacent properties. The hunters also discuss “leav[ing] tracts of state land alone for first couple of days to allow bears to hide. Then push it off” (sic).
The Governor and Commissioner of the Department of Environmental Protection should prohibit the driving of black bears from state lands onto private lands in circumvention of Executive Order No. 34, which bans the hunting of black bears on state property. Governor Murphy should dispatch law enforcement officers to prevent open and unethical defiance of his executive order.
In another Facebook thread (“Hunters needed to fill lease! $1300–Blairstown NJ”), a hunter says: “I now have 3 spots left on 300 acre lease in Warren county. Lease will be capped at 10 hunters, plenty of room. Full of bears, some huge. Good deer and coyote hunting as well. Messenger me for more info.”
This isn’t “management”; it’s a privatized, canned hunt. The promised, statewide ban would avert both disgraceful situations.
In another Facebook thread (“Hunters needed to fill lease! $1300–Blairstown NJ”), a hunter says: “I now have 3 spots left on 300 acre lease in Warren county. Lease will be capped at 10 hunters, plenty of room. Full of bears, some huge. Good deer and coyote hunting as well. Messenger me for more info.”
This isn’t “management”; it’s a privatized, canned hunt. The promised, statewide ban would avert both disgraceful situations.
These hunters are not the stewards of the land they claim to be. This is fun for them, they like to shoot and kill animals. Their gleeful online organizing to circumvent Governor Murphy’s executive order is proof.
On September 19, Frank Panico, Deputy Chief of the Bureau of Law Enforcement for the Division of Fish and Wildlife, told the Animal Protection League of New Jersey that the driving of bears off state property, where they are protected, in order to kill them, “is not illegal.”
On September 19, Frank Panico, Deputy Chief of the Bureau of Law Enforcement for the Division of Fish and Wildlife, told the Animal Protection League of New Jersey that the driving of bears off state property, where they are protected, in order to kill them, “is not illegal.”
That’s arrant nonsense. Our counsel, and one suspects, the public, strongly disagree.
Bear driving on state land makes a mockery of Governor Murphy’s executive order and its intent. It requires immediate DEP and gubernatorial attention. The Governor and his Commissioner should issue a strong warning that driving bears on or from state land is prohibited, and that the licenses of the hunters boasting of doing just that should be yanked.
Bear driving on state land makes a mockery of Governor Murphy’s executive order and its intent. It requires immediate DEP and gubernatorial attention. The Governor and his Commissioner should issue a strong warning that driving bears on or from state land is prohibited, and that the licenses of the hunters boasting of doing just that should be yanked.
Governor Murphy is getting bad advice. It’s no secret around Trenton that he’s not particularly well-served by his executive staff who continue to leave their boss scrambling. It’s these same advisors who’ve convinced Governor Murphy that he lacks the authority to end the bear hunt altogether.
Governor Murphy has broad powers to issue executive orders. Governor Murphy incorrectly cites a 2005 NJ Supreme Court (US Sportsman Alliance Foundation v NHDEP) decision for not doing so in this case. That 2005 decision applies only to the commissioner who approves a bear policy. This 2005 decision does not apply to Governor Murphy. The decision also says nothing about subsequent commissioners who were not involved with a previous administration’s bear policy.
As per Phil Murphy’s unfulfilled promised, the bear hunt should be banned, on private and state land. Governor Murphy has expansive authority to issue an executive order that would stop this hunt.
Period. Full Stop.
Susan Russell is wildlife policy director for the Animal Protection League of New Jersey. APLNJ has sued the Murphy Administration to end the bear hunt.
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