that gets scary when you have a black bear that isnt scared of you. a couple of summers ago I had a bear that would walk into my wood shed and eat my garbage while i was outside. the bear didnt care that i was there. I ended up having to shot it. i shot it at about ten yards and it didnt even care i was there

sounds like they need to get that 11 year old from idaho and the fish and game officers up there to take care of the bear problem

maybe the new governor Christie will get the bear hunt back by next year. Since the state has not been keeping track of the real numbers(due to anti-hunting pressure)they will have to do a study this spring so they will have a realistic idea of how many can be hunted. I know that taxes are the #1 priority, but this is a public safety issue.

Coho310, you might just be joking, but if you're not: This happened on the clear other end of NJ, up near Port Jervis, along the Delaware.

T.W., In the Peoples Republik of New Jersey(I grew up there, my brothers who still are there refer to the state),You would be in serious trouble if you shot the bear. although there are many fine hunters in the state, the crazed left wing anti hunting lobby is very powerful, and while they will do nothing to protect you or your property from bear attacks, they will prosecute you into financial ruin if you had killed the bear.Depending on the source, N.J. is only 7800 square miles, is the most densely populated state (pop. 8.6 million), and has a good guess estimate bear population over 3000. If hunting is not introduced soon, it will only be a matter of time before it is a human attack. Not enough land, too many people, too many bears!

from what i know about bears that bear was probably old and looking for some easy food before hibernating... I say easy because a limiting factor for bears is the health of there teeth and when there teeth begin to rot and decay they get cranky will look for easy food or starve to death... this bear was unafraid because it does not have a predator. Hunting seasons usually take care of these fat old bears. I have heard of menace bears like this being shot with shotguns in order to scare them off and the bear still being unafraid. This is often because bears have pounds of fat layering between there skin and organs and nerves.

Lived all but the last 3 years of my life in NJ. I participated in the only hunt that actually got off the ground (no luck but I saw two boars of 500+ out of shotgun range) There have already been human/bear interactions in Jersey, and the guys who mentioned how much trouble you're in if you shoot one are right. Some of the northern portion of the state (Morris, Sussex, Passaic, and Hunterdon counties) have more bears per mile than Maine, New York, Pensy, or some of the other "famous" bear haunts. Sooner or latr, someone dies at the "hands" of a big black bear in NJ. It doesn't have to be, but the antis will have blood on their hands soon. If it was your pet, your child, or YOU, would you hesitate if you had the chance? I hope not. Heck, wait till the mountain lion problem gets going there, the amount of deer in NJ is like an Open MCDonalds to the cats, sightings and scat in some of the same counties with bear problems, denial in Trenton.

and it isn't just up north. bears have been sighted in every county in new jersey. hard to believe the DEP denies relocating them to the southern portion. yet i know people who have seen the trucks with the bear cages on them in the south and the ones that show up down here already know how to raid trash cans.

If anyone has the time log onto njbearhunt.com this is a website run by an individual (Mike D.) who has been involved with the NJ Black Bear issue since 2000, wrote over 100 OPEDS and had his site selected by the NRA as the Grassroots place for accurate information to rebuke the misleading lies of the anti-hunters/animal-right groups that have managed to put a politicial spin on every logical piece of information that supports the NJ black bear hunt. The site is kept current to the black bear activity in NJ.