206 Bears Killed On First Day Of Bow-And-Arrow Hunt

More than 200 black bears were killed and three people arrested on the first day of a six-day long, state-sanctioned hunt designed to curb the animal’s population in the northern and central part of the state.

Of the 206 bears killed, 74 were from hunting zone 3, which contains a small portion of Bergen County, but only one bear was actually killed in the county, harvest numbers from the state Department of Environmental Protection show.

More than half the bears, 104, were killed in Sussex County; 41 were killed in Morris County, 36 in Warran, 19 in Passaic, and five in Hunterdon.

Three people were arrested at the Whittingham Wildlife station while protesting the state-sanctioned hunt, said Lou Vellucci, a North Jersey resident who was at the station. One of them, Cathy McCartney, did not respond to a request for comment.

Vellucci and about 3o other people protested the “inhumane” and “unnecessary” hunt.

“It’s a trophy hunt,” Vellucci said. “It’s a bear harvest. We don’t want to see anymore bears hunted.”

The state permits any black bear, including cubs with their mothers, to be hunted.

“Bears are relatively timid animals and they are sacred animals,” Vellucci said. “It’s unnecessary violence towards nature and animals who have done nothing wrong.”

Hunters are canvassing 1,000 square miles in the northern part of the state from a half-hour before sunrise to a half-hour after the sun goes down. This includes a small part of Bergen County, in Mahwah, Oakland, and Franklin Lakes, and part of Wayne in Passaic County. All of Morris County is included in the hunt.

The state reinstituted the hunt in 2010 after a four-year absence. The hunt is part of the state’s comprehensive management plan to control the state’s black bear population, which it puts at about 3,000.

Bow-and-arrow hunters may hunt black bears Tuesday and Wednesday while muzzle-loading hunters may try to bag a bear Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.

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Cathy McCartney holds up a sign at the Whittingham Wildlife station Monday while protesting the state-sanctioned hunt. Photo courtesy of Lou Vellucci