SARASOTA, Fla. (AP) _ The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission will take a final vote on whether to allow bear hunting in the state.
Commissioners are scheduled to discuss the issue and take a vote Wednesday morning at a meeting in Sarasota.
This would be the first such hunt in the state in 21 years, and some animal rights activists are opposed.
The Humane Society of the United States this week delivered petitions to Gov. Rick Scott bearing signatures of more than 90,000 people trying to stop the hunt of Florida’s largest native land mammal.
The agency calls it a “limited bear harvest.”
Nuisance bear calls and an increase in bears killed by cars are among the reasons cited for the need for a hunt.
Florida outlawed all bear hunting here in 1994.
