Connecticut wildlife officials have quietly drafted plans for a bear-hunt lottery — a way of deciding who gets to kill a limited number of the animals — and the plan is being reviewed this week by Gov.Dannel P. Malloy's office.
The plan could be the first volley in a fight that would ensue long before the first bear lopes into the crosshairs of a rifle scope. Animal activists vow to fight any development that would inch the state closer to a hunt.
Hunters say this is an opportunity to raise money and help solve the problem of bears menacing humans by plundering trash cans, bird feeders, beekeepers' hives, compost piles and other attractive food sources.
The state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection insisted that there was no proposal for a bear hunt after The Courant reported Friday that the agency was weighing the option as a way of culling a burgeoning population.
"What this proposal aims to do is just give us a tool that might be useful in the future when we come to, or if we come to, a point where we determine a bear hunt is a direction that we would want to go," said Bill Hyatt, chief of the DEEP's wildlife division.
The bear-lottery system does not, in and of itself, create a bear hunting season, DEEP spokesman Dennis Schain said. DEEP's draft of how a bear lottery would work was among several proposals reviewed Monday by the state Office of Policy and Management and Malloy's office.
A hunting lottery is used in states such as Maine, where the demand to hunt moose exceeds the number of animals targeted for killing. Hunters pay a nonrefundable fee to be entered into a draw for a chance to hunt — DEEP is recommending $25 for the bear lottery.
Winning hunters would then have a right to buy a permit to hunt the bear, at a cost of $50 under DEEP's plan. Hunters would also need to pay for a hunting license.
Before a bear hunt could occur, DEEP would have to draft plans for how a season would work — where, when and how extensive — which would be a public process that ends with a decision by the state Legislative Regulation Review Committee. A lottery, however, would require a bill's passing through the legislature.
Booming Bear Population
At issue is a ballooning bear population and increasing accounts of the animals wandering into yards looking for something to eat. If a bear season is enacted, it would be the first time that the animals have been legally hunted in Connecticut since 1840. Bears' woodland habitat vanished in the 19th century to make way for farmland, and many bears were shot for sport or to protect livestock.
Connecticut now has between 500 and 1,000 bears, and the population will double every five to seven years at its current trajectory, Hyatt said. DEEP is improving its methods of monitoring the bear population, which involves reported sightings, radio collars on bears, monitored breeding and survival rates, among other methods.
"We've, right now, been in discussions with the University of Connecticut to contract with scientists at the university to collect data that will fill in some of the gaps in the information that we have," Hyatt said. "Whatever we end up doing, and I'll stress that that hasn't been finalized yet by any stretch of the imagination, but whatever we end up doing, it needs to be based in solid scientific data."
DEEP's proposal says, "As black bear populations have expanded throughout the state, the incidence of private property damage and threats to human health and safety have escalated."
State law allows the DEEP commissioner to promulgate regulations to manage black bear through hunting seasons, but the department doesn't have a provision to charge a fee for hunting bear. That's where the lottery proposal comes in.
Connecticut wildlife officials have tried curbing the behavior of problem bears by educating the public about removing trash and other suburban goodies that lure the animals to backyards. They've also tried scaring the bears and transporting them away from the places where they snatch trash or bird feeders.
"But as the bear population expands, those tools become increasingly less effective," Hyatt said.
"So, what we have to do is look down the road and say, 'What are our options in the future?'" Hyatt said. "And one of those options, and it certainly hasn't been decided yet, but one of those options is a hunt. It's a tool that's employed in all of the other Northeastern states except Delaware and Rhode Island."
Wild West
Animal rights activists say the so-called nuisance bears that snoop around neighborhoods and ravage trash cans or bird feeders are better managed by eliminating the food source or making it inaccessible. Bear-proof trash cans, electrical fencing around beehives and out-of-reach bird feeders are a few suggestions.
Hunting is cruel and ineffective, animal rights activists said this week.
"It's definitely a bloody way to make money," said Nancy Rice, outreach coordinator for Friends of Animals, a nonprofit advocacy group in Darien. "Where are we going? Is this the Wild West?"
Nicole Dao, a spokeswoman for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, said that bears often don't die quickly when hunted.
"When adults are killed, young animals will succumb to starvation, dehydration and attacks by other animals," Dao said. "Also, more bears will simply move in to fill the void left by those who were gunned down. The only permanent solution is for residents to eliminate artificial food sources. Trash must be secured, and pepper-based repellents should be applied to landscaping."
Sportsmen's groups say that a hunt would bring in money as people pay for a chance to shoot a bear, not to mention separate fees for a bear tag or big-game license, however it is managed. That says nothing of taxidermy business, people buying hunting equipment, or money spent on food, lodging and other expenses.
Chris Marino owns Autumn Gun Works Inc. in Goshen and is secretary of the Northwest Connecticut Sportsmen Council, which is a consortium of hunting clubs that represents about 7,000 people. He believes that the state could attract out-of-state hunters if there was support for such a plan.
"We have some huge bears roaming around Connecticut," Marino said. "DEEP has captured and tagged bears upward of 600 pounds. The only thing they have to fear in Connecticut is an automobile. So, they're living to a ripe, old age. There's plenty of food. They're doing very well."
New Jersey has reinstated a bear hunt in recent years after various legal battles and protests from animal rights' groups. However, Marino thinks that Connecticut residents are likely to view a hunt as their peers do in northern New England, where hunting is commonplace. Marino doesn't expect that a bear hunt would engender the same animosity here that is has in New Jersey.
"I think the citizens of Connecticut have a little more common sense," Marino said.
Rice has a different view.
"We are watching," she said. "They are not going to get this one without a huge fight."
