Animal advocates opposing Florida bear hunt seek to invalidate state officials’ vote

Bear Warriors United, a nonprofit advocacy organization, filed a lawsuit against the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission in opposition to the Florida black bear hunt.

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Rachael Curran, a staff attorney at Stetson University College of Law’s Jacobs Public Interest Law Clinic for Democracy and the Environment, was representing the animal advocacy organization.

“In 2015, the FWC allowed, for the first time in decades, a hunt in which hunters killed 304 Florida black bears in 48 hours,” Curran wrote. “Although the overall quota of 320 bears killed was not exceeded, the harvest objectives in certain bear management units was exceeded. The FWC stopped the hunt after two days.”

Florida officials appointed by the governor reopened the black bear hunt season earlier