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IMPORTANT UPDATE: On December 28, 2025, Florida’s black bear hunt concluded amid widespread public opposition and serious concerns regarding transparency, oversight, and public accountability.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) authorized 172 bear kill permits for the hunt. On December 30, 2025, the agency reported that 52 bears were killed during the December 6-28 hunting period, stating that a final report would later provide detailed information regarding harvest locations and methods. However, due to the absence of physical check stations, an oversight mechanism employed during the 2015 bear hunt, there is no independent means to verify the accuracy of these reports. Without mandatory, in-person verification, the public will never know the true number of bears killed or whether reported kill locations and circumstances were truthful. The removal of this critical safeguard represents a fundamental breakdown in accountability and data integrity in wildlife management.

Further compounding these concerns is Florida’s movement toward authorizing the use of dogs to pursue bears. Beginning in 2026, hunters will be permitted to train dogs specifically for bear hunting. This practice, commonly known as bear hounding, is widely criticized by wildlife biologists and animal welfare experts for subjecting bears to prolonged pursuit, extreme stress, and physical exhaustion. Additional information on the impacts of dog hunting is available at our website: TheDogWars.com

This issue is far from resolved. Additional calls to action will be forthcoming. Members of the public are encouraged to stay engaged and complete calls to action to halt future bear hunts.

PREVIOUS UPDATE: On August 13, 2025,  the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) voted unanimously to move forward with plans for a Florida black bear hunt despite only five of the seven commissioners being present.

In a meeting that appeared carefully choreographed, Commission Chairman Rodney Barreto attempted to recast the agency’s image by highlighting unrelated conservation issues, notably citing Florida’s manatees as a supposed “success story.” This was a glaring deflection given the manatees’ ongoing crisis and mass die-offs in recent years, an issue for which the agency has been widely criticized.

Barreto further sought to imply that the public had requested a bear hunt.  However, there is video evidence from the December 2024 meeting in which Commissioner Gary Lester proposed a bear hunt immediately following a Bear Management Plan update. The facts tell a different story.

FWC’s own lead bear biologist, Mike Orlando, stated after presenting the Bear Management Plan update that “no action was needed.” At no point in his most recent presentation did he indicate that a hunt was warranted, that Florida’s bear population was overabundant, that growth rates required slowing, that suitable habitat was insufficient, that bears were starving, or that they posed a significant public safety threat. Instead, Orlando emphasized that securing attractants, particularly through bear-resistant trash cans, is the most effective means of reducing bear-human conflicts. Hunting does not achieve this.

Despite this, several county sheriffs and commissioners spoke in favor of a hunt, citing localized conflicts. Yet, the incontrovertible fact that hunting fails to reduce or eliminate such conflicts was never addressed.

This is a dangerous precedent. When an overwhelming majority of the public is disregarded in favor of special and personal interests and when those entrusted with protecting wildlife distort facts to justify killing them, it erodes both public trust and the integrity of wildlife “management.”

Chairman Barreto closed by posing his own “public” questions rather than allowing actual members of the public to speak freely and receive genuine answers. What followed was a self-congratulatory narrative punctuated by a conservation sales pitch, again returning to manatees as a diversionary talking point.

The lack of transparency, the misrepresentation of science, and the willful dismissal of effective, evidence-based non-lethal solutions are unacceptable. Florida’s wildlife deserves “management” grounded in facts, ethics, science, and the public will, not in orchestrated performances that serve private agendas.

To those who traveled to Havana and spoke on behalf of Florida’s bears, your advocacy was powerful, informed, and deeply appreciated. You represented truth in a room where it was in short supply. This is not over. Stay tuned for calls to action.

Click here to watch the FWC Meeting.

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We, the undersigned, strongly oppose the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission’s (FWC) decision to reinstate a black bear hunt. Their decision lacks scientific merit, disregards overwhelming public opposition, and threatens the stability of Florida’s black bear population. 

At the December 11, 2024, FWC meeting, agency staff provided an update on the state’s comprehensive bear management plan, addressing key areas such as habitat conservation, human-bear interactions, and public education. The staff concluded that “no action was needed at this time” regarding bear management. 

Following the FWC's bear management update, FWC Commissioner Gary Lester stated, “I’ll be very succinct,” and added, “I would like to see a proposal from staff for a bear hunt.” After Commissioner Lester's remarks, the Commission instructed staff to prepare a bear hunt proposal for consideration at the May 2025 meeting. This directive was issued despite the fact that the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission’s (FWC) ongoing bear population study will not be completed until 2029–2030. Any decision to reinstate a bear hunt prior to the study’s conclusion would, therefore, be made in the absence of critical population data necessary for informed wildlife management. Click here to watch the meeting.

The FWC, an agency charged with conserving Florida’s wildlife, is considering having a bear hunt without current bear population estimates or justifiable cause for a bear hunt. 

The Public Trust Doctrine mandates that wildlife be managed for the benefit of all citizens, not just a select few. FWC’s primary responsibility is to regulate hunting based on sound conservation principles, not to create hunting opportunities. We, the people, have a right to defend wildlife for the benefit of those living today and future generations. Bears should not be killed because some humans want a trophy, an “opportunity” to kill a bear, or because some refuse to take preventative measures when it comes to removing bear attractants and securing their trash. 

Establishing a bear hunting season will not stop bear-human interactions. This is because the problem is not bear overpopulation; it is a failure of humans to secure their trash and remove bear attractants. The FWC has previously stated that bear hunting does not reduce bear-human conflicts. If the FWC has a bear hunt, the bears that will be killed are bears in the forest, not the bears that are lured into neighborhoods by trash and other attractants.

OUR ORGANIZATIONS' INVOLVEMENT IN THE FWC'S BEAR TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE GROUP 

In 2017, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) established the Bear Technical Assistance Group (BEAR TAG), of which many organizations are affiliated, including our organization. This advisory body comprises both hunting and non-hunting organizations and provides direct access to FWC bear biologists and staff. Through regular meetings, we review scientific research, population data, and human-bear conflict trends, offering a collaborative forum for data-driven dialogue and policy guidance.

It is critical to note that during the meetings (since 2017), no scientific justification was ever presented for reinstating a bear hunt. That’s why, at the December 2024 FWC commission meeting, Floridians, FWC biologists, and staff were blindsided when FWC Commissioner Gary Lester abruptly called for a hunt, without reference to data or necessity. Contrary to claims by bear-hunting proponents, our organization’s insights are grounded in firsthand knowledge, years of collaboration with FWC staff, and a deep understanding of the science behind bear management.

FLORIDA BLACK BEAR FACTS
Since recorded history, there has only been ONE human fatality caused by a Florida black bear.

Florida black bears are a keystone species. Their presence positively impacts the environment and other species they share it with. They disperse more seeds than birds, meaning they quite literally influence the types of plants that grow in the forest. The vitality of a healthy functioning ecosystem depends upon the existence of bears.

Florida’s black bears are a unique subspecies of the American black bear.

Florida black bears are predominantly vegetarian, with 80% of their diet consisting of plants, 15% insects, and only 5% animal matter, usually carrion. They are not the voracious man-eating carnivores that the people who wish to kill them would like you to believe.

Unprovoked bear attacks are extremely rare. According to bear expert Lynn Rogers, Ph.D., of the North American Bear Center, you are 45 times more likely to be killed by a dog, 120 times more likely to be killed by bees, and 60,000 times more likely to be murdered by another human being than to be killed by a black bear.

According to the FWC’s website, studies show that black bears avoid confrontation 90% of the time. They are naturally shy animals that will generally give plenty of warnings (e.g., jaw popping, huffing, bluff charging) before attacking. FWC has been keeping track of incidents where a person has been injured by a bear in the state of Florida since 1976, and it is a very rare event. In most cases, the bear was acting in a defensive manner, protecting itself, its young, or a food source. 

Black bears are slow to reproduce and regulate their own populations through a biological process known as delayed implantation. This is nature’s way of keeping bear populations in check. If food is scarce, female bears will not reproduce every two years but instead every 3-4 years. 

It has taken over 50 years for Florida's black bear population to rebound from 300-500 bears to approximately 4,050 bears today.

FLORIDA BLACK BEAR HISTORY
In the 1970s, unregulated hunting and habitat loss were responsible for the near extinction of the Florida black bear.

In 1974, Florida black bears were designated by the state of Florida as Threatened and placed on the state's Endangered and Threatened Species List. 

The Florida Black Bear was removed from the state endangered species list in 2012.

Three years later, in 2015, the FWC held Florida's first bear hunt in over 20 years. 

CURRENT THREATS TO FLORIDA BLACK BEARS
In June 2024, Governor Ron DeSantis signed HB 87, also known as the "Taking of Bears" or the "Self-Defense Act," into law. This legislation significantly broadens the legal justification for killing black bears under the guise of self-defense. Under HB 87, individuals may kill a bear simply by claiming they felt threatened or that their property was at risk, effectively eliminating the FWC’s authority to investigate whether the bear posed an actual threat.

The law was passed under a misleading premise that individuals previously lacked the legal right to protect themselves from bear attacks. In reality, existing statutes already permitted lethal action in cases of legitimate self-defense. By removing critical oversight, HB 87 creates a legal loophole that enables the unchecked killing of Florida black bears.

During legislative discussions on the “Self-Defense Act,” the Co-Sponsor of HB 87, Senator Cory Simon, openly acknowledged that individuals in his county were illegally killing bears, referencing the widely known practice of "Shoot, Shovel, and Shut Up" to describe ongoing poaching activities.

The full impact of this law remains uncertain, but its existence raises serious concerns about enforcement and accountability. Given the potential for increased bear killings under the guise of self-defense, the state cannot responsibly authorize a bear hunt. Until comprehensive data is available on the effects of HB 87 and robust enforcement mechanisms are in place to prevent further poaching, any sanctioned hunting of Florida’s black bears would be ecologically and ethically indefensible.

Each year, an average of over 300 Florida black bears are killed by vehicle strikes. While some proponents of a bear hunt argue that this figure indicates a growing bear population, the data suggests otherwise. The primary driver of increased bear-vehicle collisions is not an expanding bear population but rather Florida’s rapid human population growth, which has led to more vehicles on the road and increased roadway expansion into critical bear habitat.

Scientific analysis of mortality trends demonstrates that reducing bear numbers through hunting will not mitigate vehicle-related fatalities. Bears struck by vehicles are typically those navigating fragmented habitats and crossing roadways. A hunt would merely add to total annual bear deaths rather than addressing the root causes of roadway mortality.

Effective solutions must focus on habitat conservation, wildlife corridors, and infrastructure improvements such as wildlife crossings to reduce bear-vehicle mortalities.

In the lead-up to the vote on Florida Constitutional Amendment 2, the Right to Hunt and Fish Amendment, many groups, individuals, and organizations sought to inform the public about the potential consequences of its passage. The same individuals and interest groups that were instrumental in advancing HB 87, the Taking of Bears, were also involved in promoting Amendment 2. These groups employed similar deceptive tactics, misleading voters into believing that their right to hunt and fish was either nonexistent or under imminent threat. In reality, these rights were already well-established and protected under existing law. Amendment 2 now makes hunting the “preferred means” of wildlife management.

While Amendment 2 ultimately passed with 67% voter approval, it is highly unlikely that the majority of those who supported the measure did so with the intent of endorsing bear hunting. Nonetheless, proponents of a bear hunt have since attempted to use this outcome as justification for reinstating such a hunt despite clear evidence that public sentiment overwhelmingly opposes it.

Notably, during discussions preceding the vote, a prominent bear hunter and Amendment 2 advocate publicly stated that the amendment would not serve as a mechanism to ensure a bear hunt. However, following its passage, this same individual attended the December FWC meeting and openly pushed for the authorization of bear hunting (Watch the video). This shift underscores the concerns we raised from the outset; Amendment 2 is now being exploited as a tool to advance the agenda of trophy hunters rather than to uphold legitimate conservation principles.

COEXISTENCE IS THE ANSWER
The increase in bear-human conflicts in some regions of Florida, like Franklin County, is due in part to the failure of people to remove bear attractants and adequately secure their trash. Seminole County, which once ranked highest in bear-human conflicts, has seen a significant reduction since implementing bear-resistant trashcans. The FWC previously stated they saw a 95% reduction in bear-related incidents in a Volusia County neighborhood since the introduction of bear-resistant trashcans. Bear-human conflicts will continue to rise until the root causes are addressed (unsecured trash and other attractants). If we apply common-sense measures such as bear-resistant trash cans, securing garbage until morning pickup, and removing attractants such as birdfeeders, we can resolve these issues and prevent future incidents. These methods have proven successful worldwide.

There is an abundance of natural food sources for black bears in Florida’s forests. The reason bears are entering neighborhoods is that they prefer easily accessible, calorie-rich foods, such as those in the trash. It is not due to a lack of food in the forests. Bear hunters claim that hunting will keep bear populations healthy by reducing competition for resources and preventing starvation, but the truth is that bears can get all the food they need in the woods; they prefer to go where food is readily available and easily accessible.

A LOOK BACK ON THE 2015 FLORIDA BLACK BEAR HUNT
In 2015, under pressure from special interest groups and trophy hunters, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) approved the state’s first black bear hunt in over two decades. This decision was made despite widespread opposition from conservation organizations, scientists, and the public.

Recognizing the urgent need to protect Florida’s black bears, Stop the Florida Bear Hunt (now our campaign, Bear Defenders) was established on June 24, 2015, the very day the hunt was approved. In an effort to challenge the legality of the hunt, Speak Up Wekiva filed a lawsuit on July 21, 2015, arguing that the FWC’s decision was unconstitutional. Unfortunately, the legal challenge was unsuccessful.

On the eve of the hunt, we coordinated a multi-city protest that was held across 17 locations in Florida, drawing attention to the lack of scientific justification for the hunt and the overwhelming public opposition to it. The resistance extended beyond state lines, with individuals and organizations from around the world joining the call to halt the hunt.

Despite these efforts, the 2015 bear hunt proceeded. However, the fight to protect Florida’s black bears did not end there. Our organization, along with numerous others, has remained steadfast in advocating for the protection of Florida’s black bears, ensuring that science-based conservation, not special interests, guides wildlife management decisions.

During the controversial 2015 Florida black bear hunt, Dan and Nancy Kon of Imagine Our Florida coordinated efforts to monitor the number of bears killed. Bear Monitors were stationed at designated check stations, where they documented the bears brought in by hunters, ensuring that the officially stated quota of 320 bears was not exceeded. Monitors took photographs and videos of the deceased bears, meticulously recording data on the hunt’s impact. Our Executive Director, Adam Sugalski, was stationed at check station 17 in Lake City.

The FWC issued 3,778 permits despite setting a harvest quota of 320 bears, a ratio of nearly 12 hunters per bear. The hunt, initially planned for three days, was abruptly terminated after just two days due to the rapid and alarming rate of bear killings, with 304 bears killed, including cubs, a blind bear known as Grandfather Bear, and numerous females. Notably, 59% of the bears killed were female, and 21% were lactating mothers, leaving orphaned cubs to fend for themselves.

Proponents of the bear hunt have argued that the high number of bears killed in such a short period was indicative of overpopulation. However, data contradicts this claim. The majority (78%) of bears killed were taken on private lands. In the Eastern Panhandle Bear Management Unit (BMU), 90-100% of bears killed were "harvested" on private property, many showing clear signs of having been lured by bait, such as corn found in their stomachs when they were brought into check stations. The speed at which the hunt unfolded was not a reflection of excessive bear populations but rather a result of bears being conditioned to human-provided food sources, such as deer feeding stations, making them predictable and easy targets for trophy hunters.

In response to the tragic loss of Florida’s black bears, a memorial service was held on November 1, 2015, at Lake Eola in Orlando. Hundreds gathered to honor the fallen bears and to express their commitment to ensuring that such an indiscriminate and scientifically unjustified hunt never occurs again.

FOLLOWING THE 2015 FLORIDA BEAR HUNT
In the aftermath of the 2015 Florida black bear hunt, public outrage escalated as disturbing photographs and firsthand accounts emerged. The hunt, widely criticized for its lack of scientific justification and ethical considerations, prompted a significant public outcry.

On June 18, 2016, we coordinated a statewide demonstration across 28 cities in advance of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) meeting that was held on June 22, 2016. Thousands of individuals participated in these protests, unified in their opposition to Florida’s black bear hunt.

On June 22, 2016, more than 100 concerned citizens and wildlife advocates attended the FWC meeting in Eastpoint, Florida, to voice opposition to any future bear hunts. In response to this overwhelming public concern, FWC Commissioners voted 4-3 against holding a 2016 black bear hunt, marking a crucial turning point in the agency’s approach to bear management.

Subsequently, on April 19, 2017, FWC Commissioners committed to revising and strengthening the state’s bear management plan, pledging to provide a comprehensive update within two years. During this meeting, Commissioners explicitly stated that they would not revisit the issue of a bear hunt until 2019. This decision was largely influenced by sustained public pressure and the realization that the controversy surrounding the hunt had placed an enormous burden on the agency.

At the time, FWC Chairman Brian Yablonski acknowledged the toll that the hunt had taken on the agency, stating:

"A hunt is consuming; it is consuming to this agency all the way around, and the benefit that we get with this species at this moment in time, I don’t know if it’s worth the consumption that our team is going to go through, and we’re all going to go through."

Since the 2015 hunt, FWC has taken significant strides in incorporating stakeholder feedback and implementing effective, science-based, non-lethal strategies to mitigate bear-human conflicts. However, the progress achieved in bear conservation is now at risk as discussions surrounding a renewed bear hunt resurface despite a continued lack of scientific justification and public support.

 

CALLS TO ACTION 

Call and Email Governor Ron DeSantis

As the state’s highest executive, Governor DeSantis has the authority to stop the bear hunt.

Phone: (850) 717-9337

Email: GovernorRon.Desantis@eog.myflorida.com

 

Contact the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission

Call and submit your formal opposition to the bear hunt via the FWC’s designated bear comment email. All emails become part of the public record, so please be respectful and clear in your messaging.

Phone: (850) 488-4676

Suggested Email Subject Line:

Stop The Florida Black Bear Hunt

Bear Comments Email:

BearComments@MyFWC.com

You may simply state:

“Stop the Florida black bear hunt.”

Or provide a more detailed explanation grounded in science, ethics, and ecological principles.

 

Email the FWC Commissioners Directly

To ensure your message is seen by decision-makers, contact all seven commissioners directly by copying and pasting the following email addresses into the BCC field of your message:

FWC Commissioner Emails:

Rodney.Barreto@MyFWC.com, Steven.Hudson@MyFWC.com, Preston.Farrior@MyFWC.com, Sonya.Rood@MyFWC.com, Albert.Maury@MyFWC.com, Josh.Kellam@MyFWC.com, Gary.Lester@MyFWC.com

 

Contact the Florida Senate Environment and Natural Resources Committee

This legislative body plays a critical role in overseeing environmental policy. Let them know you oppose any legislative or administrative support for black bear hunting in Florida.

Copy and paste these emails into the BCC field of your message:

rodriguez.anamaria@flsenate.gov, ingoglia.blaise@flsenate.gov, arrington.kristen@flsenate.gov, avila.bryan@flsenate.gov, brodeur.jason@flsenate.gov, diceglie.nick@flsenate.gov, harrell.gayle@flsenate.gov, polsky.tina@flsenate.gov, smith.carlos@flsenate.gov

 

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Websites: ONEPROTEST.ORG + BEARDEFENDERS.ORG

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