NJ Bear Hunt Suspended 'Until Further Notice' As Lawsuit Looms

NEW JERSEY — The re-instated bear hunt hangs in the balance after a New Jersey judge put the season on indefinite hold. State officials planned for the hunt to return next week, but animal-rights groups suing the state won an emergency stay Wednesday as the legal battle plays out.

As a result, state officials suspended the hunt "until further notice," the state Division of Fish and Wildlife announced Thursday. New Jersey's bear hunt was set to return for the first time in two years, scheduled to run from Monday to Dec. 10.

State appeals court Judge Lisa Rose issued an order that temporarily halts the bear hunt, granting time for both sides to submit legal briefs. The three animal-advocacy groups involved — the Animal Protection League of New Jersey, the Humane Society of the United States, and Friends of the Animals — have until 4 p.m. Friday to submit their legal brief. The state Division of Fish and Wildlife will have a 4 p.m. Monday deadline to answer.

Gov. Phil Murphy fulfilled a longtime campaign promise with the cancelation of last year's bear hunt, saying the 2020 period would be the last under his administration. But concerns of overpopulation and the state's sharp increase in bear encounters prompted Murphy to reverse course last month.

• From Nov. 10: NJ Bear Hunt May Return As Population Spikes, Encounters Increase

In a legal application for the emergency stay, the animal-rights groups argued that the Division of Fish and Wildlife doesn't have an accurate estimate of New Jersey's bear population.

"The emergency rule is based on an assumption that the bear population is approximately 3,000 and will rise to approximately 4,000 in two years, allegedly necessitating an emergency," the coalition's attorney, Dante DiPirro, wrote in the application for the stay. "However, the current bear population has not been scientifically determined. The state has not counted the bears nor conducted a statistically significant valid estimate of the current population."

The animal-rights groups also challenged the legality of the New Jersey Fish and Game Council's emergency rule, which officials adopted Nov. 15 without the usual public-comment period.

The Murphy administration announced Nov. 10 that it would seek to re-instate the bear hunt, which last occurred in late 2020. The administration sent proposals to the council, which approved the re-instatement of the bear hunt at its Nov. 15 meeting.

Under the new policy, the state would allow a regulated bear hunt from Dec. 5-10 and would extend the season to Dec. 14-17 if New Jersey didn't reach the 20 percent population-harvest target.

Hunting advocates throughout the state had warned for several years that canceling the hunt wouldn't be enough to control the state's bear population.

Reported bear encounters tripled this year. The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection tallied 1,971 bear incidents in 2022 (as of Oct. 21). The agency reported only 647 of such incidents — which include sightings, damage and nuisance — during that period in 2021. (The NJDEP's bear-activity reports only include sightings and complaints reported to the agency, not incidents handled without the DEP's assistance.)

New Jersey's black bear population is centered in Morris, Passaic, Sussex and Warren Counties. State officials estimated a population of nearly 3,000 black bears, projecting growth to more than 4,000 in the next two years without population-control measures.

Most of New Jersey's bear reports this year have not involved violence or property damage. New Jersey has documented only one human death from a bear in state history, when a bear killed a 22-year-old Rutgers University student hiking in West Milford, Passaic County, in 2014.

But several incidents around the state this year heightened calls for a return of the hunt or a shift in strategy.

A bear attacked a woman May 11 in Lafayette, Sussex County, while she checked her mail. She was hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries to her right arm and buttock, according to a state DEP spokesperson. Environmental officials set a trap for the bear to euthanize it. Read more: NJ Woman Attacked By Bear While She Was Getting Mail

Elsewhere in Sussex County, two dogs were killed in January in Sparta, and an 81-year-old woman was injured in a different bear attack in the township.

"The facts on the ground have shown that we cannot rely on nonlethal methods alone to protect New Jersey residents from a growing black bear population," Murphy said in a Nov. 15 statement. "Today’s actions will facilitate the reinstatement of a regulated black bear hunt this year to help limit dangerous interactions between people and bears to protect public safety."

The coalition of animal-rights organizations claimed there's only a "weak" correlation between the bear population and bear attacks. The Humane Society of the United States cited a study from the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies, which found that human actions — such as leaving garbage easily accessible to animals — have a closer correlation with bear attacks or nuisance issues.

"The Council is not above the law and should not be allowed to impede public input by fabricating an 'emergency,'" said Jennifer Best, director of Friends of Animals Wildlife Law Program. "The only thing that will keep the public safe and black bears wild is education on simple and effective solutions, such as bear-resistant trash cans and removing bird feeders from March through November."