TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — A Leon County circuit judge on Monday rejected a request for a temporary injunction to halt Florida’s first black bear hunt in a decade.
Circuit Judge Angela Dempsey ruled against Bear Warriors United, a Central Florida-based nonprofit, stating that the group failed to demonstrate a ‘substantial likelihood of success on the merits’ in its lawsuit challenging the hunt.
Bear Warriors United argued that the hunt would ‘result in the needless destruction of Florida black bears.’
Florida is estimated to have more than 4,000 black bears, which have become a concern in some areas due to interactions with humans in residential neighborhoods.
The hunt, which has issued 172 permits, will take place in several regions across the state, including the Apalachicola area west of Tallahassee, areas west of Jacksonville, north of Orlando, and the Big Cypress region southwest of Lake Okeechobee.
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