A legislative committee on Tuesday will consider an ursine version of Florida’s ‘stand your ground’ law, allowing the use of lethal force on black bears who wander into people’s yards, climb their trees or sleep in their carports.
The problem seems to be most acute in north Florida. According to A.J. Smith, the sheriff of Franklin County, about an hour-and-a-half drive from Tallahassee, this latest generation of bears is not made up of your ordinary, shy, reclusive Florida black bear.
On his Facebook page, he has described a series of calls over the past year. His deputies have responded to calls about bears roaming the streets of Carrabelle, breaking into homes in St. Teresa and snoozing on a Lanark Village porch — all communities in that coastal county on the Gulf of Mexico.
Now, it is illegal to kill a bear in Florida without a hunting permit unless it is to protect human life, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, or FWC.
Bears shouldn’t be ‘law enforcement issue,’ sheriff says
“The Florida black bear (Ursus americanus floridanus) is one of 16 subspecies of the American black bear and is the only bear species in Florida,” the FWC’s website says.
The commission last approved a bear hunt in 2015, the first in more than two decades. The hunt was promoted as slowing an increase of black bears in the state and reducing dangerous interactions between bears and humans.
The 2015 bear “harvest” was set to last a week in four sections of the state, with 320 bears expected to be killed. Instead, the hunt was called off after two days after the bear death count reached 304.
“Bear management is not a law enforcement issue,” Smith pleaded in a September Facebook Live video. He called on state officials for help with encounters between bears and humans.
Last year, the FWC responded to 5,907 calls related to bears, with more than 1,000 coming from Franklin County, according to Smith, or about 3% of all calls to the agency coming from a county of 12,000 people.
Smith said residents tell him they were told to use whistles and other noisemakers to scare the bears away.
“Well, you know what? We’re past that. Something needs to be done,” Smith said.
Area lawmakers listened. State Rep. Jason Shoaf, R-Port St. Joe, and state Sen. Corey Simon, R-Tallahassee, introduced the “Self Defense Act of 2024.”
It allows the use of lethal force against a bear without a permit if a person believes such force is necessary to protect themselves or their property. The House Agriculture, Conservation and Resiliency subcommittee is slated to take up the House version of the legislation (HB 87) on Tuesday.
North and Central Florida most affected by errant bears
The bear problem has risen to the level of an epidemic in north and Central Florida, Smith said.
Biologists estimate there are 4,000 bears in Florida, who are mostly shy and reclusive and live in hardwood forests. They can weigh up to 350 pounds and eat mostly plants and insects.
But they can also have a fondness for fast food. A bear reportedly took a bag of Burger King burgers from a Wakulla County picnic table.
In October, a ring camera captured a bear stealing a $45 Taco Bell order from the doorsteps of a Seminole County home.
And security cameras caught a bear stealing Halloween candy in Lake Mary, ransacking a home in Leesburg, and making off with Christmas decorations in Longwood.
The Senate version of the legislation (SB 632) has not yet been set for a hearing. This year’s regular legislative session starts Jan. 9.
James Call is a member of the USA TODAY NETWORK-Florida Capital Bureau. He can be reached at jcall@tallahassee.com and is on X as @CallTallahassee.
This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Florida lawmakers want version of ‘stand your ground’ law for lethal force against bears
Reporting by James Call / Tallahassee Democrat
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