Two New Jersey animal rights groups just can't bear it anymore.
The anti-hunting groups, the Bear Education and Resource Group and the Animal Protection League of New Jersey, have filed suit in a last ditch effort to stop New Jersey’s black bear hunt, which is scheduled to start on Monday.
“The state has adopted a policy that is scientifically flawed and violates the Administrative Procedures Act,” said Doris Lin, the attorney representing the animal rights groups told North Jersey.com
The hunt was given the go-ahead by Robert Martin, the commissioner of New Jersey’s Department of Environmental Protection, in response to a rise in bear complaints and DNA studies that show that the black bear population is on the rise.
“We are taking what we think are prudent steps based on the facts, and the science,” Larry Ragonese, a spokesman for the DEP, told North Jersey.com.
The appeal, which was filed in both Hudson and Mercer counties, alleges that the information used to justify the hunt is based on sketchy scientific methodology, including counting multiple sightings of the same bear as separate incidents, causing an inflation in the number of bear sightings.
“This increase in reporting makes it appear that the bear complaints have risen since 2007, when in fact, the division was merely increasing its source of complaints,” the appeal says.
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The court is expected to take up the matter on Thursday.
The hunt, which has been scheduled for six days starting on Monday, will take place in Bergen, Passaic, Morris, Hunterdon, Somerset, Sussex, and Warren counties and will run all the way through the Delaware Water Gap and to the Pennsylvania border.
