A Wildlife Article from All-Creatures.org

On Behalf of the Bears

From Bill Crain, Safe Haven Farm Sanctuary
January 2023

New Jersey plans to resume hunting down Black Bears...

Image from FOA Friends of Animals

The New Jersey Fish & Game Council is considering a plan to resume annual black bear hunts. At the January 18 public hearing in Trenton, I tried to speak for the bears.

Dear Humans:

We lived in the forests a long, long time. Then your white people came and began cutting down the trees to make room for houses, roads, stores, pastures, and parking lots. Now humans are everywhere. We cannot avoid you.

Besides this, we get hungry, and you attract us with food that you leave lying around. So you see us even more. And the more you see us, the more alarmed you become and want to hunt and kill us. These hunts are a horror for us.

We are large animals, but we mean you no harm. And we are like you in so many ways. We, too, play and care for our young. We, too, are curious and have feelings. We feel fear, anger, pain, joy, love, and grief. And, like each of you, each of us wants to live. Can’t you let us?

You are an extremely intelligent species. You have invented weapons that kill from a distance. Please use your brains to figure out how all of us—bears and humans—can live in peace. 

Bill Crain
Safe Haven Farm Sanctuary

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