Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Please ask your legislators to co-sponsor S2369/A2963


S2369, sponsored by Senator Raymond Lesniak, (D-20), is especially important legislation. Bear Smart legislation corrects the state's signal failure to organize, implement, and enforce non-lethal solutions preferred by 74% of New Jersey voters.

We all know the terrible cruelty, and sadness, of New Jersey's now annual bear hunt, or bait and shoot. Hunters bait mothers and cubs with pastries and other foods, using trail cameras to monitor the bears' every movement. The bloodied bodies of cubs, mere babies, and their mothers hauled in to the weigh stations have become a news staple during the week-long December kills. The tragedy is that the killing is utterly unnecessary.

Human-derived foods, be they unsecured trash or bait for bear and deer, condition bears to associate food with humans and lead to the very conflicts the state hunting agency claims baiting and hunting alleviate.

Please contact your legislator today. Find your legislator here.

Your message is simple: Ask your legislator to co-sponsor Senator Raymond Lesniak's Bear Smart legislation (S2369) to require bear-resistant trash containers and disallow baiting in bear habitat. Remind your legislators that 74% of New Jersey voters, in all geographic regions, prefer non-lethal solutions.

Bring friends, colleagues, and neighbors into the process. Asking one, two, or three other people to contact the Senator has a multiplier effect.

S2369 incorporates recommendations based on the best science and recommended by leading experts. The bill:
  • Requires campgrounds, closed communities and bear-area municipalities to institute and enforce meaningful bear-resistant trash bi8n and dumpster programs.
  • Addresses intentional baiting of bear and deer that food conditions bears and contributes to human-bear conflict.
To become more involved in this and other humane legislation, please contact us at info@lohvnj.org.
Remember, telephone calls and e-mails work.

Sincerely,
Susan Russell
Co-Director
League of Humane Voters - New Jersey

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