‘We’re Idiots When It Comes To Bears’ – CT News Junkie

CT News Junkie
Connecticut News from your locally owned & operated news source at the state Capitol since 2005.
HARTFORD, CT — With the state once again eyeing a way to allow limited bear hunting in an attempt to cull their numbers, House Speaker Matt Ritter, D-Hartford, said he couldn’t understand why the state doesn’t adopt simple, non-controversial measures to keep bears out of the suburbs.
“We’re idiots, when it comes to bears,” Ritter said during a media availability Tuesday morning.
Ritter used the example of the Elizabeth Park Conservancy in Hartford.
“Go to Elizabeth Park on a morning after the weekend,” he said. “We have a beautiful park where people go and have picnics, and the only option for them to throw away trash is a green open air container that … the bears can smell from miles away.”
Ritter pointed to some states in the Western part of the country that are billed as being bear proof.
“We haven’t done any of the small steps that other states have done, and we just make it really easy for bears,” Ritter said. “I’m OK with some sort of limited bear hunt at this time. But I also agree with our members that say, ‘We’re idiots.’ We’ve done nothing to address it. We have to be like they are in the west and realize that wildlife and interactions with humans is serious and could be life threatening for someone. And when you just have open green bins with leftover rolls and potato chips that you know the bears are going to come get? What are we doing here?”
And while Ritter said he was not opposed to a hunt, he said that hunting alone likely would not be enough. And while individual municipalities could take action in their local parks, Ritter said the problem could be bigger than any municipality.
“Maybe the state needs to get involved. It’s that serious,” he said.
When asked about individual homes that also leave their household trash at the curb, and sometimes have a problem with bears ransacking them, Ritter again advocated for bear-proof bins.
“They’re not bear proof, and there are bear-proof trash bins,” he said. “So maybe we need to start doing that.”
House Minority Leader Vincent Candelora, R-North Branford, agreed that avoiding leaving food out for bears was a goal, but pointed out several potential problems.
“I think our bear population is something we need to continue to monitor and look at as we’re seeing them creep further and further south,” he said. 
Many communities though have automated trash pickup, and having trash bins with secured lids could potentially increase costs by requiring a person to unlock the lid before the automated arms dump the contents into the truck.
“It’s very difficult to bear proof a trash can,” he said. “I’m not sure how that would work. If you’re securing the lids, now you’re going to have to add labor … to get off the truck and open each one, which is what we got away from years ago. So I don’t think that’s a real simple solution either.”
Trash bins advertised as being bear proof sell online starting at about $300. Other tips for making trash cans less attractive to bears include sprinkling bleach or other deterrent scents on trash, storing bins indoors until trash day and setting up motion-sensing lights or sound systems.
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 the bill was amended to once again open the door to the possibility of bear…

Lawmakers on the Environment Committee on Friday voted 27-6 to send a substitute bill to the Senate floor that strips away language allowing a bear hunt in Connecticut and instead expands on a prior law that allows farmers to kill nuisance bears. 

Lawmakers are once again looking to legalize bear hunting in Connecticut and the state’s environmental protection agency says a limited hunting season is necessary to cut down on human-bear conflicts, which are increasing.
New policies aimed at managing Connecticut’s growing black bear population, a prohibition on openly carrying firearms, and an option for prosecutors to require drivers contesting tickets to attend traffic safety education are all among a handful of laws going into effect next week.

Opinion writer Susan Campbell reminds us that bears and other wildlife have been more mobile since we humans locked ourselves down during the pandemic, and as such we all need to be more cognizant of their presence. For our safety and theirs.

Legislation signed into law Tuesday by Gov. Ned Lamont will prohibit the intentional feeding of bears, allow the state to issue permits to kill the animals for damaging farms and clarify when residents can use deadly force against a bear in self defense. 

Opinion writer Terry Cowgill offers his thoughts on the teaching of civics classes in our schools, a new law requiring police officers to tell motorists why they were stopped, and what the government is doing to ease the friction between people and the state’s bear population.

The Connecticut House of Representatives gave final passage Friday to legislation banning the intentional feeding of bears and allowing Connecticut residents to kill the animals in limited situations like self-defense or protection of pets and livestock.

Lawmakers in the Senate endorsed on Thursday a bill intended to curb dangerous interactions between Connecticut residents and the state’s growing bear population by permitting the killing of some nuisance bears and prohibiting the intentional feeding of the animals.

The Judiciary Committee gave a thumbs up to a bill that would allow Connecticut residents to use deadly force against a bear if it was injuring a pet, another human, or livestock. The bill will also penalize the unintentional feeding of bears. 

Opinion writer Terry Cowgill weighs in on the about-face by a former state senator regarding cannabis legalization, the affordable housing debate and a group opposing it, and those pesky black bears in his neck of the woods.

The Department of Energy and Environmental Protection on Tuesday euthanized a black bear in Salisbury that broke into a home through a kitchen window. The bear, which weighed around 400 pounds, broke into the home on Monday. When personnel from DEEP’s wildlife division went to the home intent on setting up a trap, the homeowner…

Lawmakers on the legislature’s Environment Committee rejected a proposed bear hunting season in Litchfield County before a Friday vote on policies aimed at managing the growing population of the animals in Connecticut.

Connecticut lawmakers weighed legalizing bear hunting during a Friday hearing on a bill backed by the governor’s administration and intended to address an escalating number of conflicts between humans and the animals, including at least two attacks last year.

Lawmakers on the state Environment Committee will weigh at least two proposals this year to manage Connecticut’s expanding black bear population amid an increasing number of resident encounters with the animals. 

Donald Eng is an award-winning local news veteran. He has covered multiple communities for various news organizations since 1995.
In his spare time he is a recovering cheer dad and a New York Mets, red wine, and adult rec tennis enthusiast.

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