On June 7, 2021, Florida Governor DeSantis received HB0087 along with 24 other bills. Because the bill was sent after the Florida legislature had adjourned for the session, Governor DeSantis has 15 days to sign the bill, allow the bill to become law, or veto the bill.
The Florida legislature overwhelmingly voted for HB0087 on March 8, 2024. The bill is titled Taking of Bears. It restores the ability of people in Florida to protect themselves, their pets, and their dwellings from black bears without having to ask permission from the Florida state bureaucracy first. The legal ability to defend pets and dwellings from bears was stripped away in a regulation created by the Florida Fish & Wildlife Commission (FWC)in 2012. 68A-4.009 Florida Black Bear Conservation:
- No person shall take, possess, injure, shoot, collect, or sell black bears or their parts or to attempt to engage in such conduct except as authorized by Commission rule or by permit from the Commission.
The Florida legislature was not involved in this regulation. No elected official voted on this major change in the law. Because law-abiding citizens with property and assets to lose try to follow the law, this regulation cast doubt on people’s ability to defend themselves and others from bears without first obtaining permission from the Florida Fish & Wildlife Commission.
Even when black bears were invading homes and destroying property, residents were worried that shooting the bear might result in adverse legal consequences.
This is a reversal of traditional law, which was in effect until 2012. If a bear was destroying property or killing livestock, the bear could be stopped with lethal force. The 2012 regulation requires the owner of the livestock or property to contact the Fish & Wildlife Commission first, then attempt to stop the depredations with non-lethal means. If this fails, then the Fish and Wildlife Commission may issue a depredation permit.
HB0087 is a partial restoration of the law that existed before the power grab by the FWC in 2012. It restores the ability of people to use lethal force against bears who are a threat to their persons, pets or dwellings. To protect livestock and other property, people are still required to obtain a depredation permit from the FWC. If a bear is taken in defense of persons, pets or dwellings, the take has to be reported to the FWC within 24 hours. The person who takes the bear is not allowed to keep any part of the bear. The law is set to take effect on July 1, 2024.
The Florida bear population is skyrocketing. Black bears in Florida are not in any danger of extinction. Black bears were removed from the State Threatened Species list by the FWC. The last time the bear population was estimated was in 2016, at about 4,350 bears. Estimating from natural increase in other states, the population is likely over 7,000 today. Another study to estimate the current population is supposed to be ongoing. As the bear population increases, problem bears invade suburbs and cities. Because they are overprotected, they lose their fear of humans. Some of those bears become problem bears and need to be removed from the population.
HB0087 allows people to remove the problem bears as they are being problems. The number of illegal kills of bears is so small that the FWC cannot measure it. The number of bears taken under HB0087 will probably be less than 30 a year. About 300 bears are killed in vehicle accidents each year in Florida. Hundreds of bear cubs are killed and eaten by adult male bears in Florida each year. Most problem bears are male bears.
There is no official record of a black bear killing a person in Florida. However, from 2006 to 2022, there were 37 bear-human conflicts in Florida in which the bear made physical contact with a human. The first documented killing of a human by a black bear happened in California last November during a rising bear population. The California Department of Fish & Wildlife is reluctant to issue depredation permits.
HB0087 is a commonsense measure to restore the ability of people in Florida to defend themselves, their pets, and their dwellings from problem black bears. It is expected Governor DeSantis will sign the bill.
About Dean Weingarten:
Dean Weingarten has been a peace officer, a military officer, was on the University of Wisconsin Pistol Team for four years, and was first certified to teach firearms safety in 1973. He taught the Arizona concealed carry course for fifteen years until the goal of Constitutional Carry was attained. He has degrees in meteorology and mining engineering, and retired from the Department of Defense after a 30 year career in Army Research, Development, Testing, and Evaluation.
“Because the bill was sent after the Florida legislature had adjourned for the session, Governor DeSantis has 15 days to sign the bill, allow the bill to become law, or veto the bill.”
Allow it to become law?
Maybe there’s something I’m missing, but i always understood that if the president or governor receives a bill and doesn’t sign or veto it within the prescribed time that it goes back to the legislature if they are still in session. If they aren’t, it’s called a pocket veto and doesn’t become law.
You wouldn’t think DeSantis would be required. You’d think “investigating officers” would give distressed citizens benefit of doubt.
wow, they even take away your right to defend yourself by putting you in a coffin or prison… typical tyranny. FJB
Aye Ope! Great questions and points!
This sounds like furcism to me. Why just the black bears? If a polar (white) bear escapes from a zoo and attacks you, does this mean you can’t shoot it? What about a navigationally challenged grizzly (brown) bear that veers off course and winds up in Florida? Do you have to let it eat you? End bear discrimination, now!
😀
My guess was the intention of the law was prohibiting the taking of black bears to discourage the illegal trade to the Chinese of bear parts.
Unintended consequences when a “dept” makes laws without going through the state legislature. I wonder if there was even a comment period.