hunt becomes available to them, but with the proposed the sharp-shooter hunt, a fewer amount of hunters would arrive in the county. Lastly, experts estimate the cost of the sharp-shooter hunt being less expensive than plans for relocating, sterilizing, and euthanizing bears while educating the community and protection forces. An organized hunt consisting of trained professionals proves to have a lower cost than alternative solutions, to be a more efficient way of utilizing hunting time, and to have a higher degree of safety compared to a random hunt.Targeting and euthanizing overly problematic bears serves as the second possible solution to dealing with the black bear population in New Jersey. The state, home to over 1,000 bears, up from just 50 bears in the late 1960s, is receiving complaints about bad-news bears tipping garbage cans and acting aggressively toward humans. The number of complaints are increasing drastically from 285 in 1995 to 1, 659 last year. Under this second solution, the Divisions Wildlife Control Unit will capture problematic bears, causing property damage and other more serious problems. After being captured, the bears go through the tagging process where experts also remove the bears from the complaint site. Upon release, the bears receive intense aversion therapy to modify their behavior, including pepper spray, rubber bullets, and pyrotechnics designed to frighten animals. When we capture a nuisance bear, well pull a tooth [to determine age], tattoo it, draw blood, measure it, and make sure the experience is so negative that he wont want to go near another human, reports John Cichowski, a ranger at the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The Division of Fish and Wildlife reports that 82% of aversion therapy bears are no longer problematic after their release. According to the Division Black Bear Policy, bears that repeat negative behaviors will be euthanized. Governor Whitman plans to modify the P...
