Environmental extremists are at it again in Florida.
This time they’re targeting the state’s wildlife management decisions with a coordinated legal attack.
And environmental activists just hit Florida hunters with one lawsuit that caught wildlife officials by surprise.
Radical activists wage legal war against hunting rights
The professional agitators at Bear Warriors United filed a lawsuit last Friday against the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission over the state’s first sanctioned black bear hunt in a decade.
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission unanimously approved a 23-day black bear hunting season starting December 6, ending a 10-year moratorium that followed public hysteria from environmental groups.
But these activists can’t accept that wildlife professionals know better than keyboard warriors about managing Florida’s animal populations.
Bear Warriors United – which sounds more like a militant organization than a legitimate conservation group – filed their petition with the Division of Administrative Hearings claiming the hunt violates state law.
Their lawyers, Thomas Crapps and Raquel Levy, argue that the new hunting rule gives the FWC executive director “unbridled authority to issue permits to kill bears annually without any guidance or scientific facts.”
That’s rich coming from a group that probably couldn’t tell the difference between a black bear and a garbage can from 50 yards away.
The real science behind Florida’s bear management
Here’s what these environmental extremists don’t want you to know about Florida’s black bear population.
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission estimates there are approximately 4,000 black bears living in the state.
Black bears were actually removed from Florida’s threatened species list back in 2012 due to successful conservation efforts – you know, the kind of real conservation work that hunters and wildlife professionals have been doing for decades.
Reports of “nuisance” bear encounters have skyrocketed from 2,000 in 2016 to more than 6,000 in 2024.
That’s a 200% increase in bear-human conflicts, but apparently Bear Warriors United thinks that’s just fine.
The FWC plans to issue 187 permits across four hunting zones: 68 for the East Panhandle, 46 for North Florida, 18 for Central Florida, and 55 for South Florida.
Gil McRae, director of the Florida Marine Research Institute, said during the August 13 FWC meeting that he felt “confident” with the growth rate information on black bears to warrant a hunt.
“If we just had that old 2015 population number without the growth rate information, I would say we should be a little cautious, but having both makes me more confident,” McRae explained.¹
But professional activists don’t care about actual science when it conflicts with their fundraising narratives.
Ron DeSantis stands with hunters and property owners
Governor Ron DeSantis signed legislation in June 2024 that loosened restrictions on lethal force during bear encounters.
The bill, sponsored by Senator Corey Simon and Representative Jason Shoaf, recognized that Florida families have a right to protect their property and pets from dangerous wildlife.
Liberty County Sheriff’s Deputy Dusty Arnold explained the real-world impact of Florida’s growing bear population.
“If you’ve got a dog, they’re coming in, they’re tearing your pens up, getting the dog food. If you have a grill out and you don’t clean it properly, they’re coming onto your porches and they’re trying to tear your grill open,” Arnold said. “We’re starting to see a lot more bears hit by cars, so we’re having a lot of property damage everywhere.”²
That’s the reality that environmental activists sitting in air-conditioned offices refuse to acknowledge.
Environmental groups organize coordinated pressure campaign
Bear Warriors United isn’t working alone in this legal attack on hunting rights.
Environmental groups organized protests in at least 11 cities and raised billboards, including one near the Governor’s Mansion in Tallahassee.
They’re also pushing polling data claiming 75% of Floridians oppose the hunt, though these surveys typically come from environmental organizations with obvious bias in how they phrase their questions.
Chuck O’Neil, president of the Speak Up Wekiva environmental group, admitted their strategy goes beyond the courts.
“I think it’s going to end up in the court of public opinion,” O’Neil told the Fort Myers News-Press. “That’s where we’re going to fight this out and make it as politically unpopular as possible.”³
Translation: They plan to use media pressure and activist hysteria to override scientific wildlife management.
The real agenda
Professional environmental activists are using Florida’s court system to override the expertise of wildlife professionals and the authority of elected officials.
Bear Warriors United executive director Katrina Shadix claims there are only 4,000 bears left in Florida and they’re “being killed off at an unsustainable rate.”
“Trophy hunting our bears will be the final nail in their coffin . . . and will exacerbate the speed at which they are barreling toward extinction,” Shadix said.⁴
But the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission removed black bears from the threatened species list in 2012 because conservation efforts were so successful.
The last bear hunt in 2015 was stopped early after hunters killed 304 bears in two days, but that wasn’t because of any conservation crisis – it was because of political pressure from these same environmental extremist groups.
Florida’s bear population has been growing steadily, which is why human-bear conflicts have tripled over the past eight years.
Professional wildlife managers understand that controlled hunting is essential for maintaining healthy animal populations and reducing dangerous encounters with humans.
But environmental activists would rather see bears breaking into people’s homes and attacking pets than allow licensed hunters to help manage the population.
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission declined to comment on the lawsuit, which is standard procedure for active litigation.
But you can bet they’re not going to let a handful of professional activists override decades of wildlife management expertise and the will of Florida’s elected representatives.
¹ Gil McRae, Florida Marine Research Institute Director, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission Meeting, August 13, 2025.
² Dusty Arnold, Liberty County Sheriff’s Deputy, quoted in Florida legislative testimony, June 2024.
³ Chuck O’Neil, President of Speak Up Wekiva, “Bear Advocacy Group Sues Florida Fish and Wildlife Over New Black Bear Hunting Rules,” Fort Myers News-Press, August 19, 2025.
⁴ Katrina R. Shadix, Executive Director Bear Warriors United, statement to Florida’s Voice, August 18, 2025.
Click this link for the original source of this article.
Author: rgcory
This content is courtesy of, and owned and copyrighted by, https://www.desantisdaily.com and its author. This content is made available by use of the public RSS feed offered by the host site and is used for educational purposes only. If you are the author or represent the host site and would like this content removed now and in the future, please contact USSANews.com using the email address in the Contact page found in the website menu.
