Florida Bear hunt scheduled to start this weekend; $2,000 bounty offered to not use permits

After a key legal defeat, a statewide bear hunt is scheduled to start this weekend. Florida issued 172 permits to hunt bears this year, including 17 in the Central Florida area, which includes parts of Seminole County. Four Seminole County residents got a permit to hunt, including one Oviedo resident.

Bear Warriors United, an Oviedo-based nonprofit, said 49 of those permits were issued to people who specifically got them with the intent of not hunting bears, including two of the permits issued to Seminole County residents. 

“The judge made a very bad decision, and I currently have a meeting with an attorney to discuss an appeal,” said Katrina Shadix, executive director of Bear Warriors United.   

You can read FWC’s bear hunt rules here and contact FWC commissioners here. Have a news tip or opinion about the bear hunt to share with OCN? Do that here.

Of the 172 permits, six were issued to out-of-state residents, including from Arizona, New Jersey and Georgia. Residents could apply as many times as they wanted for the $5 fee to enter the lottery, and could request where in the state they wanted to do the hunt. 

Former Seminole County resident Janis and her husband spent “several hundred” dollars buying applications, and then spent the $100 to get the permit. Oviedo Community News is not using her full name because she’s worried about harassment.

“It’s like playing the megamillions – you don’t think you’ll win,” Janis said. “It was like a moral investment to say I tried. And I was fortunate enough to (be able to) pay for the tag.”

She’s against the hunt because she says there hasn’t been an updated bear population study to justify it; Florida Fish and Wildlife says its population estimates were done using 2015 numbers as the basis, but are current. She also wants to know what the FWC will do with the money from bear-hunting permits.

“It’s purely for sport,” Janis said. “And a lot of conservation-minded hunters are opposed to this.”

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission approved the controversial bear hunt in August. Proponents said Florida has a long history of bear hunts using dogs, and that recent bear-human attacks justify using a hunt to control the population. 

The new rules allow for an annual bear hunt; the last bear hunt was in 2015 and ended after the maximum number of bears were killed in two days.  

Bear Warriors United’s lawsuit continues, with a court date scheduled for 2026. In the meantime, Shadix said her group has gotten a donation from Fight.TV, a mixed martial arts streaming service, to offer $2,000 for each hunter who signs a legal contract to not kill a bear.

“Black bear Friday deal,” Shadix wrote online. “$2,000 to each hunter not using a tag to kill a Florida black bear.”

Abe Aboraya is a Report for America Corps Member