The new policy would allow trained municipal police officers to shoot bears that break into houses, kill livestock, attack pets or threaten people.
Since it takes a village, the blame has to go to the mayors, Ted Turner, Marge Schott, George Steinbrenner, and all the coaches and owners who thought they could tame bad boys, make them attack pets.
The split vote yesterday also suggested the council's dissenters saw little wisdom in Governor Whitman's counterproposal for a bear-control plan aimed only at killing bears that break into homes, attack pets, kill livestock or threaten people.
A vast majority involved fishers' attacking pets.
New Jersey, home to more than 1,400 bears, initiated a policy last November to euthanize any bear that attacked pets or livestock, threatened humans or entered a home.
As I was reporting my article on the Burmese python invasion in Florida (subscribers can read the story online; everyone can listen to the podcast), I kept coming across strange little stories about wild animals attacking pets.
As I was reporting my article on the Burmese python invasion in Florida (subscribers can read the story online; everyone can listen to the (http://www.newyorker.com/online/2009/04/20/090420on_audio_bilger)), I kept coming across strange little stories about wild animals attacking pets.
Mr. Campbell and Governor McGreevey both approved last December's hunt on safety grounds, saying it was needed to slow the rate of growth of the bear population and reduce the numbers of bears entering homes, wandering into schoolyards and attacking pets and farm animals in northwestern New Jersey.
There are anecdotal reports of fishers attacking pets and, in a 2009 case in Rhode Island, a 6-year-old boy.
But a growing number of incidents in which mountain lions have attacked pets have wildlife authorities and park biologists concerned that pumas' diets have expanded.
