SEMINOLE COUNTY, Fla. – The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission has maintained silence since the state’s bear hunt began, prompting wildlife advocacy groups to call for the hunt’s termination.
Speak Up for Wildlife is pressing for an immediate end to the hunt while raising concerns about potential illegal hunting activities.
In a press release, the organization describes the current hunt as “a lawless free-for-all.”
[WATCH: Florida’s bear hunt is underway, but FWC is not actively saying how many have been killed]
Organization president, Chuck O’Neal, compared this year’s hunt to 2015 and said this year they’ve been shut out.
“We get no data. None whatsoever,” O’Neal said. “We have no idea how many bears have been killed.”
O’Neal alleges that some individuals are posting on social media about killing bears without proper permits.
“We have people saying they’ve killed bears. We have the list of the licensed stakeholders. These people are not on the list, so they’re poaching,” O’Neal said.
Beyond calling for an immediate end to the hunt, O’Neal is advocating leadership changes within the FWC.
“I’d like to see Roger Young fired because this is a disaster. He is a disaster,” O’neal said. “Number two, the seven commissioners, five of which voted for this hunt, at the next election we’re going to have a new governor, those five should be gone. We need to clean house top to bottom.”
We did send an email to FWC asking several questions addressing the allegations made by Speak Up For Wildlife. We also asked if FWC is actively tracking the number of bears that have been harvested and how many bears have been harvested.
We got an email back on Wednesday afternoon which said:
In accordance with Chapter 119.07(1), Florida Statutes and Section 1.7, Internal Management Policies and Procedures of the FWC, records staff will process the requests that they’ve received and notify requesters of the results. We encourage the public to file a complaint with our Wildlife Alert Hotline at 888-404-3922 if they feel a violation has occurred.
News 6 also sent two additional records requests to FWC on Wednesday regarding the bear hunt.
The first bear hunt in 10 years began on Dec. 6 and runs through Dec. 28.
The state issued 172 permits for the hunt, with each permit allowing the hunter to kill one bear.
Hunters have 24 hours after their hunt to report their harvest to FWC, and to arrange a time and location to meet and go over their kill.
The state said it decided to conduct the hunt this way because it was more efficient, according to the FWC bear hunt website.
The permits were assigned via a lottery system. Critics of the hunt applied to get some of the permits and reduce the number of bears hunted.
They are also offering $2,000 to permit holders who agree in writing not to hunt.
To learn details about the bear hunt, including what bears can be killed, what weapons can be used, and where hunters can hunt, check out this story on ClickOrlando.com.
If you believe someone is hunting without a permit or is poaching wildlife, you can report the violations anonymously by calling FWC’s Wildlife Alert Hotline at 1-888-404-FWCC (3922) or submitting a tip to FWC’s Wildlife Alert website.