Same shit, different year.

It’s true. Each year about this time for the past four years (e.g. last year’s post – there are also posts for prior years in the archives), we endure the Bear Hunt – No Bear Hunt Debate.

All indications are that New Jersey, the most densely populated state, has too many black bears, and they tend to wander onto people’s property, leading to an occasional and potentially dangerous person-bear encounter.

The hunters want to shoot them, and other folks think that better garbage management is the answer. Of course, like just about everything in the Garden State, it has become a bullshit political matter.

A hunt previously had been scheduled for December, but our new Governor (and former Senator) Jon Corzine doesn’t like the idea of a bear hunt. According to the Star Ledger, Governor Corzine wrote a letter to Lisa Jackson, who was appointed by Jon Corzine to head the Department of Environmental Protection, in which he stated that the state’s Bear Management Policy, approved by the former Head of the Department of Environmental Protection, doesn’t reflect his views on the hunt and that he would like to see the state rely on non-lethal methods to control the bear population.

Not surprisingly, Lisa Jackson agreed with her boss and said that the Department would not approve a hunt.

So, now the hunters are considering suing the state.

Like I said: same shit, different year.