topic Re: My first Protest in Community Chat

My first Protest

KittySoftPaws — Sun, 18 May 2025 01:10:30 GMT

I am a lover of all animals and have been my whole life. I have rescued them, and raised some baby orphans too. It's rewarding for me. Since moving to Florida last year, I have seen many animals I have never seen before, as well as some I have only seen in pictures. One thing I wasn't aware of is that there are black Bears here. The State, and F&W is proposing a hunt on these beautiful animals to 'control' the population, leaving many cubs defenseless. It's terribly sad. What they won't admit is the control is due to so much overdevelopment here that they are losing more and more of their habitat. It's something I have a hard time accepting. There was a statewide protest against this in many cities around Florida today. I attended in my City, and they provided many signs for us to hold on the sidewalk in front of the busy traffic. It was hot, but I am so glad I went. Many people were very receptive and waved, honked and gave us the thumbs up. Most suprising to me was there was a couple of reporters there and a News crew. Well to my suprise, the News crew singled me out on the spot for an interview which will be televised and on the radio. My fifteen minutes of fame. haha! I surprised myself that I pulled it off so well, and I was told from some of the others there I didn't miss a beat. I feel it was because I was speaking from the heart. I even said in the interview, "Call your Gov. DeSantis office and tell them this is wrong, because remember they work for us!" I pray this hunt won't happen, but I do feel very good that I was there being a voice for them. By the way, you don't need to live here to have a say in this, anyone who wishes to, can sign the petion.

Re: My first Protest

chessylady — Sun, 18 May 2025 01:21:10 GMT

I heard today that Florida is taking the flouride out of your water. That must have been sponsored by the dentists lobby.

Re: My first Protest

We rescue cats — Sun, 18 May 2025 01:21:45 GMT

@KittySoftPaws Thank you for speaking up for those who have no voice. We have a huge black bear that comes to visit us a few times a month. We bring in the feeders every evening but not before he destroyed 2 seed feeders and my humming bird feeder.

Re: My first Protest

Snowpuppy — Sun, 18 May 2025 01:28:42 GMT

I live among black bears too here in Northern MI. Ours aren't typically large at 250-300 lbs.

Being a Big City girl myself it does help to educate people about living with wildlife.

One thing for sure is that some folk think they're cute! I'll feed them! And sure enough bears come into habited areas and start looking into dumpsters and garbage cans for food instead of letting them forage.

Re: My first Protest

KittySoftPaws — Sun, 18 May 2025 01:29:48 GMT

@chessylady Actually, from what I have heard, many Dentists are not happy about it and are looking to "supplement" their patients with Flouride. Which is mostly a nasty by-product released into our water, all the while they tell us it's "good for us." Reminds me of the Movie Erin Brokevich. They told those people the hexavalent chromium was "good for them" too. I eliminated it in my toothpaste long ago and we filter all of our drinking water.

Re: My first Protest

Kachina624 — Sun, 18 May 2025 01:38:53 GMT

@KittySoftPaws. I heard in a news report yesterday that a bear recently killed a person in your state and attacked and injured another man in his yard as it was attacking his dog. Yes, probably due to encroaching development, loss of habitat.

What do you propose as a solution?

Re: My first Protest

kitcat51 — Sun, 18 May 2025 02:20:28 GMT

An ederly man & a dog were recently killed by a black bear in Florida so I understand the concern...bears are dangerous, especially if you get between a female & her cubs.

Re: My first Protest

KittySoftPaws — Sun, 18 May 2025 01:41:52 GMT

@We rescue cats How cool! It would make my year to see a beautiful black Bear. But my feeling is they, like us are just trying to survive and take care of their families. We can absolutley co-habitate with them and all other animals. And nature takes care of itself, it doesn't need Man to step in. This whole thing is just a way to justify trophy hunting IMO.

Re: My first Protest

Kachina624 — Sun, 18 May 2025 01:44:51 GMT

@KittySoftPaws wrote:
@chessylady Actually, from what I have heard, many Dentists are not happy about it and are looking to "supplement" their patients with Flouride. Which is mostly a nasty by-product released into our water, all the while they tell us it's "good for us." Reminds me of the Movie Erin Brokevich. They told those people the hexavalent chromium was "good for them" too. I eliminated it in my toothpaste long ago and we filter all of our drinking water.

@KittySoftPaws. I use extra prescription fluoride toothpaste. It has cut my frequent cavities to nothing and saved me thousands of dollars. I've had fluoride treatments with every dental cleaning since childhood.

As far as I can tell it's affected nothing but cavaties. I'm a big believer.

Re: My first Protest

KittySoftPaws — Sun, 18 May 2025 01:48:44 GMT

@Kachina624 A tragedy for sure. The Man with the Dog was biten, that's it. So one has to ask, if you felt threatened and you had children what would you do? They are doing what is instictive to all of us. The solution is to keep your trash, and animals contained. it's not a solution to kill off the Bears. For that matter, two people were killed recently in the Kissimee by Alligators. Again, very sad abnd a tragedy. They were on canoes in a River during mating season. Should we destroy the Gators as well? The bear hunt IMO is a total land grab under the guise of "safety control" by which developers are responsible for to begin with.

Re: My first Protest

Kachina624 — Sun, 18 May 2025 01:55:09 GMT

@KittySoftPaws. I notices in the video that was of the bitten man, it was garbage day and everyone had the big plastic garbage cans sitting out front. What are they supposed to do with it? Apparently the bear was in the backyard after the dog, not the garbage though.

Re: My first Protest

MoonieBaby — Sun, 18 May 2025 01:56:09 GMT

Get your voice out there. Local government and up the flagpole so to speak. You have the voice they don't. Be their advocate. They deserve better than blind eradication.

Re: My first Protest

Goldengate8361 — Sun, 18 May 2025 02:00:08 GMT

@KittySoftPaws @Thank you for speaking up! Bless you.

Re: My first Protest

KittySoftPaws — Sun, 18 May 2025 02:11:43 GMT

@Kachina624 Again, it is a no win because of overdevelopment. The Bears need to eat and they are losing their land, and in the process their hunting grounds. They say with this hunt, they are going to "bait" these poor animals with food and then shoot them as many times as they want. It's disgusting, and I wish we lived in a better World.

Re: My first Protest

Beth-QVC — Sun, 18 May 2025 02:33:35 GMT

argumentative

Re: My first Protest

Bonjour13 — Sun, 18 May 2025 03:26:20 GMT

You did something meaningful by not just showing up but using your voice and I’m sure that passion came through loud and clear on the news. It’s people like you who can shift public awareness and put pressure where it’s needed. Hopefully your story motivates others to speak up too, whether they live in Florida or not.

Re: My first Protest

spumoni99 — Sun, 18 May 2025 03:47:00 GMT

I wonder if they could do some sort of birth control on the bears? I remember hearing about them doing that with other animals, put contraceptives in food products or something I can't remember. That would sure be better than a mass culling.

Re: My first Protest

chessylady — Sun, 18 May 2025 04:24:43 GMT

@KittySoftPaws from what I've read, studies show that cavities go up when flouride is removed from the water. I grew up where there was no flouride and had multiple cavities as a child.

Re: My first Protest

jubilant — Sun, 18 May 2025 11:24:52 GMT

I have mixed feelings about this. People should be able to feel safe at their homes. If a bear killed my dog or hurt one of my family I would want it dead. It's too bad they don't have a relocation plan for these bears that wander too close to humans and their living

quarters.

Re: My first Protest

UpNorthGorgy — Sun, 18 May 2025 12:10:30 GMT

@We rescue cats. Last night at 10 PM I heard a boom. Neighbors trash containers got dumped this time. Some people keep them in the garage for that reason. They make a mess, but just a nuisance. Rarely attack. I have had them in the garage.

I heard it in the woods for awhile snapping branches. I also bring in my feeders as love to watch birds. I have lost a few feeders also. DNR tells people to remove food. My guard dog was behind me shaking and nervous. If they get bad DNR traps them, tag their ears and move them to another area. I was told they can rome a 30 mile radius.

Years ago I am told before local dumps closed, families used to bring Kool aid and popcorn in the summer and drive to the dumps to watch the black bears. It was something for tourists to do.