IF YOU'RE NOT FROM A PLACE CALLED 'BEAR COUNTRY,' YOU MAY BE WONDERING WHY AN ANIMAL OF THIS SIZE NEEDS DEFENDING. I’ll tell you...black bears are flight animals, like squirrels or deer. They have short claws for climbing  – something they do when they're afraid – which is often. My neighbor's chihuahua once treed a bear, and there's a youtube video of a cat from West Milford chasing a bear. I chased a bear once too, running through the neighbor's yard at 5am with my bear-proof trash can in his mouth. He ran as soon as he saw me – in my pajamas and flip-flops – a scary sight, I'm sure.

In so many ways, black bears don’t – and often can’t – defend themselves. At least not from the kind of threat they face here in New Jersey.

Before I go on, let me be clear about my thoughts on trophy hunters. Anyone who kills an animal for fun is surely lacking in other areas. But I digress. Trophy hunters kill bears under the delusion they’re heroes, conquering a fierce brute. But the hunter fantasy quickly goes up in smoke, because black bears are NOT fierce. Black bears don’t fight back, making them easy targets for any sadist with a gun. Someone once took a photo of three cubs shot by a single New Jersey hunting party. One of the hunters remarked, "When the mother saw me, she ran away and didn't protect them." The myth of the mother bear defending her cubs, debunked by a hunter himself.

And though it’s the trophy hunters who pull the trigger, the real enemies of black bears are the NJ Division of Fish & Wildlife and politicians who serve the gun and hunting lobby.

For over 2 decades, pro-hunt politicians have refused to pass and strengthen garbage control laws. And the DFW will not crack down on residents who don’t bear proof, though they are fully aware that uncontained garbage is the #1 reason black bears are attracted to neighborhoods. This is because the DFW compiles statistics on unwanted bear encounters, and then uses that data to justify a trophy hunt disguised as wildlife management.

So why arm the bears? Because their teeth and claws and great strength can't protect them from a hunter's bullet. For that, they need YOU. They need you to arm them and defend them with your voice and your refusal to ever give up on them. Yes, we will get the bear hunt BANNED. We just don't know when.