Stay in the woods, Teddy--It's no picnic out there!

In Monday’s blog, I was poking fun at a news headline that said that New Jersey “may ban bears in urban regions,” musing about whether posted signs would discourage the bruins from straying into city streets—or whether urban invaders would be shot on sight, without the benefit of Miranda warnings.

Turns out, it’s no laughing matter. There will be no signs, but there will also be no warnings. City—or even suburban—bears will be “euthanized” by police, according to a new state policy.

It seems that the former practice of tranquilizing strays and transporting them to state lands proved expensive and inconvenient—and did nothing to curb the growing population and dangerous encounters with people and property. But most local police departments hate the idea of shooting bears, both because of possible danger to residents and because they would probably rather deal with criminals than be wildlife “managers.” One local police chief was quoted as saying, "Why would we want to kill bears? Why not just relocate them? We're not going to go out and execute animals in front of people." And I think that many suburbanites, if they become aware of the new policy, may be reluctant to report a sighting, for fear of being responsible for ending the life of a bear.

In addition to this new “shoot on sight” policy, there will be bear hunts this year and for the next couple of years at least, unless conservation groups squawk loud enough—and they will squawk, as they always have, in the ongoing struggles among state officials, hunters and nature lovers.

The other developing story involves research into methods of bear birth control. There are several research studies in progress, at wild animal parks in New Jersey and elsewhere, but those projects are in their infancy.

So I am afraid there will be some ugly encounters in the next few months and years, between people and bears, police and bears, and people and people. And with more than 4000 New Jersey hunters having applied for bear permits, there will be no "Teddy Bear's Picnic" in the woods, much less in the cities and 'burbs.

If it hadn’t been for mankind’s fall into sin and the resultant curse, we’d be playing with our ursine friends instead of shooting them. My motto is always relevant: “If you don’t understand Genesis 3, you don’t really understand anything.”