...and bear, OH MY!

[BigK]

http://www.alloutdoor.com/2014/10/24/house-breaking-bear-shot-florida-gun-owner/?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=Email&utm_content=2014-10-25&utm_campaign=Weekly+Newsletter#

I read this story and was first surprised there are bear in Florida. I figured it was just palm trees, roller coasters, and water slides, LOL. Second, I was surprised the home owner came to the fight with enough gun.

[bersaguy]

They have a lot of wilderness in Florida.  Part of the Everglades and all of Okeechobee Swamp where Feral Hogs live and thrive and probably feed the bears so there is plenty of wilderness but when you discontinue any wild animal harvesting for any extended period of time eventually your going to develop a population issue.

 

 

I can remember back when they closed the deer hunting in Illinois in 1949. Read about it in magazines when I lived up there. They ignored the pleas from the farmers all over the state because the deer were destroying about 1/3 to 1/2 of their crops each year. The farmers didn't know what to do and they even marched on the State capitol and got no where. I think it was about 1989 or 90 when a herd of about 300+ deer walked out on a runway at O'Hare airport about the same time a 727 was on final approach to land and at the last minute had to scramble and abort the landing sending air traffic controllers sending planes orders and scrambling  aircraft in every direction. It took almost 3 hours to run the deer back into the woods that surrounded the runway.

 

People living in the suburbs were going through the same issues the farmers across the state were. They could not have hedges or gardens or anything including grass in many areas because they had deer everywhere. The Mayor of Chicago held a meeting and decided to hire people to come out and shoot nets over the herds and load them on livestock trucks and truck them down to southern and middle Illinois and release them. Right smack in the middle of Farm Country. The farmers sent word back the the Mayor that they would open season on the TRUCK DRIVERS and then slaughter the deer in the trucks before they ever got released down there. Mayor decided that was no longer a good idea.

 

The Mayor and the Governor got together and discussed what to do and in the Fall of 1990 Illinois would have their first Deer season 41 years and on September 15th 1990 a Bow season was opened and was going to be buck only buck said that would not be a fast enough solution so it was either sex limit 5 deer per hunter. It was followed by a Muzzle loader season with same rules. Either sex 5 each.  Then it would close for two weeks and a combination bow / Muzzle loader season would open for a month Buck only.  I don't know what their rules are now on seasons and quotas but you still are not allowed to hunt with any type of High powered rifles.

 

Another group of people have benefited from this is drivers. There was so many accidents between cars and deer that insurance was outrageous or you could opt out and hope you never collided with a deer which was not a good option because about 80% of people had hit 1 or more damaging their vehicles.  

 

The State of Illinois took it on step farther. They found certain people and set up districts and those people were deer processors and Illinois would pay for your insurance deductible in an accident with a deer if you reported the incident immediately to the Processor Hotline and the deer could be picked up before the meat spoiled.

 

I have a buddy that has been a processor up there since 1993 and he has 1 walk in cooler to keep deer in till he can process them and 15 Large chest Freezers in a processing building. The state pays him so much per deer to pick up and process the meat and freeze it. Then if any Homeless Shelter, Orphanage, or other charity that provides meals for free can take the proper papers with them and go by and pickup an allotted amount of deer meat in roasts or burger. About 80% of each deer is burger because of the damage to the deer by the vehicle in most cases.

 

My buddy has passed the torch down to his son about 2 months ago that has worked with him for years. Illinois still has a large amount of vehicle / deer crashes as they still have an abundance of deer and will until they allow hunters to use High Powered Rifles to hunt with. When you get 70 miles out of Chicago going west or southwest you are in farm country and the land is flat to the curve of the earth 8 to 10 miles and most of the woods are now Forest Preserves which are No Hunting so the hunting is very limited to field fence rows which many deer do hide in but if they are out in the corm and other type fields  they will most likely be out of range of most bows and many Muzzle Loaders unless you wait till they come back to the fence rows and hope to get a shot then........................................ :shrug: :shrug:    

[JWC]

Florida is full of bears. Ironic this story came up. Last week a bear got in my in-laws shed on Sunday night. Tore the door all up, ate a bag of fish food, a bag of chicken scratch, and drug 2 bags of corn 200 yards off into the woods. The grandparents were pretty ticked. Well the sorry thing came back Tuesday night and got over in the chicken coop and ate all their chickens. Grandpa went out riding the mule around the place the next day and caught him and their red heeler give him a good chase back to the fence and back into to forest. Grandpa pulled his .38 just to fire off to scare it as much as he could but he doesn't have the best mobility and didn't get off a shot. They're worried he'll come back and clean out their freezers on the porch (they like to do that) or something or just generally tear more stuff up. They've had to park the farm truck against the shed door to keep it closed last week. Bad thing is he knows there's food there and he ain't scared, and he'll definitely be back.

basically the little red heeler is their go-to for now but she's just a pup. she ain't like the German shepherd they used to have that they'd turn out on a bear whenever they saw one up by the house. She was a mean bitch and would actually get after 'em.

So they're just trying to make do for now. It's a part of living out in forest that sucks for old people. But they're tough old crackers that know how to deal with it.

They need at least a 1 week/year season like they used to have to keep them bears down there honest IMO. There are definitely a lot where they live Edited October 26, 2014 by JWC

[bersaguy]

I thought all states had a nuisance law where if you have done everything you can do and the pest wild animal keeps destroying your property you could kill it and notify the Wildlife Service and they would pick up the animal................... :shrug: :shrug:

[Erik88]

We've had several people attached by bears since I've lived hear the past 3 years. Not long ago a lady was attached in her garage. I heard they are considering doing a hunt this year to reduce the numbers.

[TMF]

My parents have a single bear who comes by every 6 months or so to trash their place. They have two rings of fencing on the property. He sometimes will rip a fence post towards the ground to make climbing over it easier. A couple of weeks ago he destroyed their bird feeders. They secure the lids on their garbage cans, and he's given up trying to rip those open. My dad fires warning shots from the upstairs window when they catch him in the yard, in hopes it will scare him from coming back. Doesn't seem to work. Black bears in Florida are becoming way over populated, and the tree huggers don't want them hunted.

Shooting them on your property isn't an option either, unless you want to chance going to jail. We had a neighbor back in the early 90s who was having his chickens ripped out of their coops by a local bear. Only thing he could do was call the possum sheriff to come out and trap it. They were able to, then relocated it to a different part of the state. It came back the next year.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Edited October 27, 2014 by TMF

[JWC]

Can't shoot em legally as a nuisance. Can't really illegally shoot, shovel, and shut up either cause of the risk of shooting one with a tracker on it. State don't want to mess with moving them because almost every time they just come back. Plus they live dead center of App Natl Forest. There's 5 for every one they move.
The state has a publication that says to "scare that bear" as the way to live with them. A very mean dog and bird shot to the a$$ seems to work best even if they don't want you doing that. If they still had Sheeba she was bold enough to make the bears in the past relocate on their own accord

They need to get a hot wire on the shed asap though. Just to keep him out from destroying stuff. They got a guy coming out to put some hives on their place soon and he'll have to run wire. I'm hoping he'll throw some around the shed as a courtesy.

But it all boils down to they live in the Forest so they gotta live with bears. And rattlers. And gators getting in their pond. And all kinds of critters. They've lived there a long time and theyll work it out.

Saddest part is they don't have any family real close and they are getting up in years. My wife's family's home place was in central FL. They were real deal Florida crackers. At one time they were cow men. But it grew up all around them. grandpa held on as long as he could with town exploding around him. Finally he was surrounded and they sold out and he bought this place up in the Forest. Bounded on 3 sides by ANF and a pretty good piece from town. But they're getting older now and it's hard being so far out without any kin close by, when he can't really do much. Edited October 27, 2014 by JWC