On June 21, 2024, Governor DeSantis of Florida signed HB87, restoring the right of people to protect themselves, their pets, and their homes against aggressive black bears. The law went into effect on July 1, 2024.
From July to December 2024, FWC recorded four instances where people killed bears, but were not charged because of the new law. There were seven situations where people were charged with illegal kills. In 2021, during the same period, there were 17 illegal kills recorded; in 2022, there were seven illegal kills recorded during the same period. In 2023, there were seven illegal kills recorded in the same period (July – December). In 2024, one of the defensive situations where the new law made a difference made the news. From the account. The defender used a 9mm pistol.
The FWC said Tittle called his dogs, but the puppy did not return to him. The man grabbed his larger dog, but it pulled him toward the bear, and he ended up on the ground, officials said.
“I noticed that it was a bear. I called the dogs, and only the big dog came. Me and him kind of wrestled around here, and I was trying to hold him down. He wanted to go back because he wasn’t coming back,” Tittle told News 6.
Tittle said he saw the bear near his pup, so he attempted to fire a “warning shot” to scare the animals but struck the bear, according to the FWC, which said the animal tried to climb a tree but fell to the ground.
Most bears killed by humans in Florida are killed in vehicle accidents. In the last five years, 1,467 bears have been killed in vehicle accidents, about 293 per year. Officials killed 73 bears in the same period, about 15 per year. The number of bears killed under the new law will probably be lower than those killed by Florida officials, amounting to about 3% of those killed on the highways in vehicle collisions. The hunt conducted in 2015 appears to have stabilized bear numbers for a few years.
Ten years ago, the bear population in Florida was estimated at 4,350. No official estimation has been recorded in the last ten years. A study of the Florida bear population is underway. The current number is probably over 7,000. The natural increase per year may be over 500.
On May 5, 2025, a fatal bear attack was the first officially recorded in Florida. On June 24, 2025, a pistol was used to kill a black bear in self-defense under the new law in Fort Walton Beach, Florida.
“The bear did not seem right,” records show he told an investigating wildlife official. “It was not afraid of me and was walking around during the daylight.”
He grabbed a pistol, he said, to protect himself and his wife. From behind a cracked door, he yelled at the bear to go away. Robinson said it knocked over his griddle and walked toward him. The bear, a male, weighed roughly 180 pounds and was estimated to be between 2 and 4 years old, according to wildlife officials.
“I felt extremely threatened and thought the bear was going to come through the door,” records show he told an investigating wildlife officer. “So I then began shooting the bear.”
Robinson shot it 12 times, records show. He stopped firing when the bear turned away from him, and he watched as it walked a few dozen feet before dropping to the ground.
In spite of dire warnings by those opposed to nearly any killing of bears in Florida, the number of bears killed under the new law has been insignificant for the bear population. The total numbers will be available when the 2025 report from the FWC is published. The number is projected to be less than nine in the first full year.
The bear population in Florida has to be managed. A number of bears need to be removed to stabilize the population. The removal of problem bears is the best first step to stabilize bear numbers. When the number of bears removed is less than four percent of the number of bears killed in vehicle accidents, the numbers are insignificant to the bear population.
To people who have to deal with problem bears, they are very significant.
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.
Oh, so Florida is exercising the right of the people to defend themselves against bears. Common sense tells me that this law should never have been required but because things have gotten so out of control, the left managed to get an antihuman pro bear bill passed.
Idiot’s all!!!!!
There are a lot of people who would rather see humans harmed or killed the bears or other wildlife.
A bear goes into a bar and orders a beer. The bartender tells the bear, we don’t serve bears beer in this bar. The bear says, if you don’t serve this bear a beer in your bar I’m going to eat that woman at the end of the bar. The bartender reiterates that, we don’t serve bears beer in this bar. The best goes to the end of the bar and eats the woman. The bear comes back and demands, that this bear gets a beer in this bar. The bartender shrugs and says, it’s like I told you, we… Read more »
It seems we are being lulled into believing that the government has some authority – never granted – to decide for us under what circumstances we are to live or die based on one of the minority ideologies held by a progressive group. I recall no such authority vested in any agency of the government, nor any agreement holding animal life above human. The reality is that the right to self-defense is inviolate – period. No “rules” or “laws” – which, after all, are just words expressing what some people think are good guidelines for behavior, and arbitrary – pre-empt or supersede… Read more »
In my youth I once hunted with a gentleman who told me he had killed a Black Bear in defense of himself and his dog, only to be arrested by a game warden. This happened in north Florida in the early 1970s. At trial his attorney argued the man was legally deer hunting and only had buckshot with him. It took about seven rounds of it to finish off the bear, which is what had initially attracted the attention of the game warden. No sane man would hunt bear with anything less than slugs, plus the state game guidebook claimed… Read more »
IMOA, you need to film your hunts, fishing, hiking, camping or any woods experiences where a bear encounter is a possibility. I wouldn’t want some judge making the decision that I shouldn’t defend oneself from a dangerous animal if required.