Demo at 'crime scene,' a.k.a. DFW

If ever a state agency deserved to be protested against, it's the Division of Fish and Wildlife. Last Monday afternoon, that's what happened in a highly effective demonstration at DFW's headquarters in Trenton.

Numbers of animal welfare organizations took their protest directly to the source: the people who will bring us another horrific black bear hunt next month and who have been responsible for numbers of black bear deaths this year. . . the people who stack the deck against bears in myriad ways and sell hunting licenses for trophy kills.

Here's a link to the story that appeared in an online publication worth knowing and spreading the word about:

http://www.newjerseynewsroom.com/state/protesters-rally-for-bears-at-nj-fish-and-wildlife-crime-scene

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Protest DFW crimes at DFW headquarters

Starting with last December’s bear hunt, AnimalBeat has included numerous posts about NJ’s black bears, including the innocent bears killed in the name of public safety or “we didn’t have tranquillizer darts.” The agency behind all those killings, as well as the hunt, is the Division of Fish and Wildlife, in the Department of Environmental Protection.

Next Monday is the date for the first protest at the DFW office in Trenton. After this year’s killings – and before the hunt that’s no doubt planned for this year – it is an appropriate time to let DFW know what we think of its “crimes against nature and crimes against good government,” as the Bear Education and Resource Group in APLNJ describes them.

The bill of indictment against DFW includes the following, taken from the APLNJ flyer about next Monday’s event.

• Since April of this year, DFW authorized the killing of more than 20 bears, cubs, and yearlings to underscore a claimed need for a hunt
• DFW continues to promote a trophy hunt despite mounting evidence that hunts achieve nothing and cause increased "nuisance" behavior in orphaned cubs and yearlings left without their mother's guidance
• DFW inflates population estimates to justify their goal to expand the bear hunt
• DFW relocates bears to repopulate the species into other hunting zones
• DFW refuses to enforce the black bear feeding ban law
• DFW killed an innocent bear cub in Stokes State Forest after the bear was exonerated on all charges

The demonstration next Monday will take place at NJ Fish and Wildlife HQ, 501 East State St., Trenton, between 1-2:30 pm. The program includes a number of speakers, from leaders of the “Bear Group,” APLNJ and the League of Humane Voters, to HSUS and NJ Sierra Club reps, to an investigator and a wildlife specialist.

Yes, Monday is a “work day,” but if hunters take off from work for trophy hunts, bear supporters can take off to speak up against bear hunts and bear killing. That would be a good day’s work!

(http://www.aplnj.org/events.php)

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