Amended Bill Would Allow Bear Hunting If DEEP And Governor Deem It Necessary – CT News Junkie

CT News Junkie
Connecticut News from your locally owned & operated news source at the state Capitol since 2005.
HARTFORD, CT — Legalized bear hunting appeared to be off the table at the end of March when the Environment Committee forwarded Senate Bill 1523 to the Senate calendar after amending it to remove bear hunting from the language.
But following a May 15 bipartisan amendment from Sen. Rick Lopes, a New Britain Democrat who co-chairs the Environment Committee, and Senate Minority Leader Stephen Harding, R-Brookfield, the bill was amended to once again open the door to the possibility of bear hunting in Connecticut.
The amended bill, which the Senate passed and sent to the House on a 34-2 vote, allows the governor to direct the commissioner of the Department of Energy and Environment Protection (DEEP) to adopt regulations and set parameters to permit a bear hunt in the state only after he and DEEP’s commissioner find that an assessment by DEEP indicates that “bear conflicts with people, pets, and livestock in Connecticut have reached a level that poses a public safety threat.”
In conducting its assessment, the amendment says DEEP “must consider factors like bear entries into occupied buildings and bear attacks on people, pets, and livestock.”
Senate Democrats Christine Cohen and Mae Flexer were the only two “no” votes on the bill.
The return of the possibility of a hunt has drawn the ire of Humane World for Animals, formerly known as the Humane Society of the United States. The nonprofit is urging lawmakers and the public to reject the bill.
If passed, Senate Bill 1523, An Act Concerning The Taking of Wildlife That Damage Crops or Black Bear That Injure or Kill Livestock, would give the the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) the authority to create a bear hunting season to deal with “a significant rise in human-bear conflicts over the past decade,” according to DEEP spokesperson James Fowler.
But animal rights activists have a different view on the matter.
“What they’re doing this time is hiding behind the guise of a public safety need in order to kill bears and in order to enact a regulated hunting season,” said Annie Hornish, the Connecticut state director for Humane World for Animals. “And the science shows that hunting is done for sport purposes, not to reduce human-bear conflicts.”
Hornish said there were nine bills proposed at the General Assembly this year focused on bears, and SB 1523 was the only one to advance.
She said Connecticut is one of just a few states in the country that doesn’t allow bear hunting. Rhode Island also does not allow bear hunting, but the other New England states all do, albeit with certain restrictions.
Hornish said the situation here in Connecticut with bears is being blown out of proportion by agencies like CT DEEP.
“DEEP uses very inflammatory language,” Hornish said, citing the official DEEP website about bears and wildlife in the state.
“You might notice the home invasions is particularly inflammatory. And that’s by design to incite fear in the public. And that helps facilitate a broader public acceptance of a bear hunt because they’re fearful of this animal.”
She also said the news media doesn’t help the situation either when reporting on bear sightings and events in the state, as they also use similar inflammatory language, stoking fear in the public.
Hornish cites a case in Granby involving joggers and said one of the joggers wasn’t actually attacked by the bear.
“He slipped and fell into a pricker bush, but the media ran with a bear attack,” she said. “In every instance where there’s been any contact of a bear with a human or a dog, it’s been in situations that are completely preventable.”
Hornish accepts that incidents involving bears have risen – they have been active on people’s properties, damaging porch and window screens because they’re looking for food.
According to Fowler, recent statistics from DEEP show a significant rise in human-bear conflicts over the past decade in Connecticut, increasing from about 500 annually to more than 3,500.
“In 2024 alone, DEEP recorded 67 bear home entries, and there have been seven bear attacks on people in the past five years,” Fowler said.
And despite Hornish playing down the bear attacks in the state, they have occurred.
In 2022 a 10-year old boy sustained severe injuries from a bear that attacked him while he was visiting his grandparents’ home in Morris. He was saved by quick action by a neighbor who attacked the bear with a metal pipe before the animal could drag the young boy into the forest abutting the property.
The bear returned to the neighborhood again seeking food and was ultimately euthanized by a conservation officer from DEEP.
Shortly after that attack then-state Senator Craig Miner, a Republican representing the 30th District where the boy was attacked, asked the governor to sign an executive order to allow hikers to carry guns in state parks because of his concerns over the bear population in the area.
“I can tell you, there are times when they don’t go away,” Miner said. “They just won’t go away.”
Hornish said people need to stop feeding bears, adding that if just one person in a community is feeding them, they are increasing the risk of a problem for everyone else.

The state currently allows farmers to kill bears if they get a permit from DEEP, and individuals also have the right to kill a bear in self-defense if they believe they are in imminent danger.
Hornish said she and her organization understand the bear problem, and they believe much more needs to be done to educate the public about dealing with bears in their neighborhoods and communities.
“Hunting will not do that because when hunters hunt, they’re not hunting in suburban neighborhoods,” she said. “They’re out deep in the woods hunting bears where they live and ought to be, and that’s not going to resolve the problem.”

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