More Bear Attacks On Humans In New Jersey
July 1, 2009
The media in New Jersey must be taking a page out of the play book of the global warming alarmists and simply censoring any coverage of bear attacks in their state. We have to go to New York to find media coverage of a bear that attacked a man in Sussex, New Jersey while he was packing his car for a business trip to New Hampshire.
According to the Times Herald-Record, Henry Rouwendeal, 51, was packing his car for a business trip, when a 300-400 pound bear knocked him to the ground to get after a sandwich he evidently had packed in his car. After some time, he was able to get himself into the house to wake his wife, a registered nurse, who treated his wounds.
As long as those in charge in New Jersey continue to bury their heads in the sand over this issue, the shorter the fuse on the time bomb becomes that will result in someone getting seriously injured. But we continue to hear ridiculous rhetoric from bear lovers similar to the one the Black Bear Blog received from a bear lover yesterday.
People are 247 times more likely to be killed by lightning and 60,000 times more likely to be murdered by another human being than to be killed by a black bear.
I am far more afraid of being hurt by a human than by a bear. But I would never suggest that we kill humans just to prevent them from possibly hurting someone, and we should not kill bears either.
Personally, I could care less about what my odds are in getting killed by a bear. That’s not the issue nor is it an issue of getting injured from a bear attack as has happened with Mr. Rouwendeal. The issue is why do we have to be subjected to living a lifestyle that some bear lover deems necessary, living in fear of our kids and property, because someone wants to protect bears? Can a man now not go from his house to his car without fear of being attacked by a black bear because a handful of perverted minded people say so?
The person who made the above comments also made several comments which shows us clearly that she hates human beings and has little use for them. She blames man for everything. What a shame. The combine hatred of mankind along with an abnormal desire to protect animals, is sick behavior, yet it is being supported in far too many places.
There are proven means to deal with overgrown populations of wild animals, yet this continued perverted behavior is ruling the day. Hopefully enough people will wake up to the fact that their right to own property and to be able to protect themselves and that property is being taken away by those who are more fond of animals than humans. Let’s just hope this happens before another is attacked by a bear.
Tom Remington
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Barbara, I’ve got a feeling that bowl was just silver plated…..and it wore off…
Can we get real here? I’m not familiar with this blog, but a friend sent me a response to a post that a woman named Barbara posted. I’d like to respond to this post. Let me say up front, I’m an ex-hunter, who has hunted deer, bear and everything else for many years.
“With over population of bear you’ll see a decline in deer herds”
This is highly unlikely. Black bears are omnivores, but their main diet is a combination of herbs, nuts and berries. They have been known to kill a fawn, but from my understanding this is very rare. However, assuming that the deer population did decline. Hasn’t it been the hunters saying that they had to hunt to control the deer population, because there weren’t any natural predators? So if the deer population declines, wouldn’t that be a good thing? There would be less DVAs and deer eating flowers in suburban neighborhoods. BTW, everyone knows that the NJ Div. Fish & Wildlife spends millions of dollars every year to propagate the deer population for it’s 1% hunter constituents.
“With overpopulation you will likely see problems with starvation and sickness and a slow lingering death of many bears and an overall population of less healthy animals.”
This is just not true. Nature will control wildlife populations on its own. Both deer and bear populations will stabilize according to food availability. That hunting is necessary for population control is the big lie that has been told for many years now. Hunting actually increases the population through compensatory reproduction. In addition, hunting has had a devastating effect on game species. All hunters know this to be true. Twenty years ago you had a good opportunity to kill a buck with a nice size rack. Today, half the deer look like greyhound dogs, and there are no trophy bucks to be found. A recent study published by the National Academy of Sciences, “Human Predators Outpace Other Agents of Trait Change in the Wild”, stated the following, “By harvesting vast numbers and targeting large, reproductively mature individuals, human predation is quickly reshaping the wild populations that remain, leaving smaller individuals to reproduce at ever-earlier ages”.
“Not all hunters kill animals for the fun of it, many of us rely on the meat to help get us through the inter and summer until next hunting season. . . . Many hunters I know hunt bear because they like bear meat.”
Let’s be honest. I don’t know of anyone that goes bear hunting for food. No one I ever knew did, and I know a lot of hunters. Bear hunting is pure trophy hunting, as well is the majority of deer hunting. We are out there to get a buck. Most hunter give the deer meat away. My friends that don’t grind it up and mix it to make sausage, because deer meat itself is not very appetizing. So let’s be honest why we hunt. If you have to make excuses, then I think you should reevaluate why you are hunting.
“I actually like bears and all animals”
Well, you can’t like an animal with a gun. I quit hunting, because I came to respect and love the deer and bear I was hunting. I didn’t think it was a fair fight. When I grew older and experience the loss of loved ones and illness myself, I came to appreciate and respect the struggle all animals have to survive, and I could get no more enjoyment out of killing. There is no difference between killing your dog and killing a bear. They are both sentient animals. It’s as simple as that for me.
With regard to this ferocious bear attack in New Jersey – please give me a break!!! A bear pushed a man down, and his wife put a bandaid on a scratched knee or something. Call out the national guard!!! This kind of human/bear encounter is extremely rare, and the man wasn’t hurt. Hell, he should have split his sandwish with the bear. Anyone who knows anything about bears, is that they are very timid, and don’t want anything to do with humans. I’ve seen house cats tree 400 pound bears.
Complete bunkum utter nonsense Nagle,, I have eaten bear, deer, which I prefer over all other meats, elk, moose, and Buffalo…Black bears will eat anything they find..and several deer fawns and elk calves are eaten by them every spring summer…The best bait used for chase season is MEAT, they love it..I’ve watched black bears come into elk or deer gut piles and eat the entire guts and hide left by a hunter…Male black bears will kill black bear cubs and eat them..FACT..So don’t try and bs us here, I’ve lived in the Rocky’s for 50 years, 15 miles From the Sawtooth, and Frank Church…Wilderness Area’s…I prefer the lean meat of wild game…I would never eat that trash known as chicken or pork…rarely will a piece of beef get used here…I have friends who eat a bear every year…I knew a fella who ate Cougars…Your in factual error..
George Nagle, you’re about as full of shit as a Christmas turkey…..you’re no more a hunter, all right, and never have been….Just another namby panby anti-hunter who likes to call himself one to pretend to be like “just one the guys”….barf.
Go back to your books. Pretendo.
Nagle, I could pick apart every one of your propositions, since every one is wrong…but it’s getting late for me, and I’m going to sleep….and, for a fact, you ain’t worth it.
I was wondering how long it would take for some candy ass anti to try and tell me how I was wrong in what I wrote. No wonder our country is getting to be so screwed up, we have people like this trying to run it. Nagle you just worry about what your going to the store toget and let us worry about how and what we want to eat. Oh yea next time I see a bear carrying a fawn or calf elk in the spring I’ll try and get a picture so you can tell us all that their just playing together. get real!
I would like to add that as far as bucks actually getting smaller because of hunting is total b.s.. There are more big bucks entered in the record books in the last few years than ever before. Maybe you just sucked at hunting so much you had no choice but give it up. Plus bears are far from being timid, just get between a sow with cubs and then tell me how timid they are. Sound like the hunters you know are just the type of hunters that give good ones a bad name. Maybe the type that would shoot a buck and just take the horns or if the pack got to tough they’d just leave it because it was so hard. Basically part time outdoorsmen who make their week long trek into the wilds with a used motor home and satelite t.v. Yea, those are the ones I look to for advice on hunting and knowledge of game
I think Mr. Nagle (excuse me if we don’t get on a first name footing here) has misused his opportunities in the big woods or just never really tried. Just didn’t have enough of whatever it takes to go for the KILL. After all, there are always exceptions to the rules, even in human nature
Why Hunt?
Many of us have been asked to put into words the reasons why we hunt. The problem is, the reasons and motivations that compel me and many others to hunt are pretty hard to put into print. This is my first attempt at explaining what drives me to head into the woods each hunting season.
What leaps to mind is a quote from my father. Someone had asked him why he loved to hunt so much; what was so great about being in the woods. His reply was, “If I have to explain it, you wouldn’t understand.” This really sums up the feeling many of us have. A recent ad in several hunting magazines shows a fellow festooned in camoflage, with the caption “You can’t explain it. But nothing would keep you from it.”
Our lack of eloquence on this subject is a major factor in the “bunny-huggers’” fight against our rights. The vast majority of our populace is open to suggestion on the topic of hunting, and could take it or leave it. The very fact that the anti-hunting crowd often makes their claims public, with little or no rebuttal from us hunters, will sway many of these neutral folks. It’s really a debate with one vocal participant, and the claims made, while illogical and faulty, are the only thoughts to ever reach many of these non-hunters. I believe it’s time we delved into ourselves and offered our thoughts, however abstract, to the non-hunting public for their consideration.
I started going to the woods with Dad when I was very young. I don’t really remember when I first went, but when I was nine, I got to go on a few hunting trips with him and follow him through the woods. He wisely kept these trips varied, and limited the time we spent on any one thing, as my attention span was fairly short. By the time I was eleven, I got to carry an old heirloom .410 double-barrel shotgun, with the action broken open. If I was to spot some game, then by his permission, I could close the gun and shoot. Soon I was allowed to wander the woods on my own for short times, still following his rule of keeping the gun broken. It was at this time that the hunting seed really began to grow in me. There’s just no way to adequately portray the majesty of a forest and the creatures within, when you feel like the only man who’s ever stood where you stand. It doesn’t matter that you’re walking on a well-worn trail, and that you spy spent shotgun shells alongside it from time to time. You feel all alone, at peace, fully alert, ready for anything.
I never feel closer to God than I do when I walk in the woods, his most wondrous creations all around me, with the challenge of outwitting them on their own terms in front of me.
The hunting instinct is one of the most basic instincts of mankind. After all, we are the ultimate predator. Take a look at “prey” animals. Their eyes are usually on the sides of their heads, affording a wider field of view. They lose some depth perception with this arrangement, but it helps them survive. Predators, on the other hand, characteristically have their eyes set close together, very useful for estimating the distance between he and his target. Beyond this, the urge to kill lies within us all, especially as children. Without proper channelling of these instincts, children often grow into physically abusive and/or murderous adults. Can any of us honestly say that, as kids, we didn’t shoot birds with our slingshots and bb guns, or set homemade traps for other critters? I say that if you can say that, then you either never had an opportunity as a child, or you’re an exception to the rule of human nature.
The kill is the fulfillment of the hunt. We hunt to be alone, to observe wildlife without being observed ourselves, to face one of the greatest challenges in this world: to take a wild animal on his own turf, using our brain and little else. Forget the wild tales you may have heard about “automatic” guns and telescopic sites. When it comes right down to it, those things are no good unless you can create an opportunity to use them. We don’t swagger into the woods and slay Bambi when he meekly peeks from behind a tree. We have to use every sense, every bit of experience we have, and when we accomplish our goal, it’s a milestone. I once watched a videotape on hunting that theorized that, on the average, if you are hunting and get a chance at a deer, that chance will last 7 seconds. In my experience, that’s not far off. Sometimes you’ll have longer, sometimes not that long, but 7 seconds is just about average. Think of what it takes to be alert and ready, and to make an honest, clean shot on an animal that always believes there’s danger behind every tree! In those 7 seconds you must verify that it is, indeed, a legal animal, find a chance to shoot (not easy when you’re in brushy country), and you must usually remain undetected by those roving eyes and swivelling ears. What a high! The adrenalin rush I get from it is like nothing else in this world. The fulfillment of long hard hours of hunting is definitely worth it!
I read a quote from a famous writer once, though I can’t recall his name. The quote went something like this: “We do not go hunting to kill. We kill in order to have gone hunting.” Without the kill, you aren’t hunting. That doesn’t mean that you have to kill every legal animal you see, but hunting is not hunting if you’re not there to kill. But to return to the quote, one does not go hunting expressly for that purpose. Hunting is freedom, a tie to our ancestors, peace, contentment, happiness, joy, sweat, close calls, exploring, hiking, stealth, boring, exhilarating, tiring, satisfying, challenging, and a thousand other things. It’s there for you to discover, and judge for yourself if you want to take part in it. But please, “don’t knock it until you’ve tried it.” That’s the only way you’ll ever know for sure.
- Russ Chastain
I once watched a Black Bear chasing a yearling White Tail around a clearing. To the untrained you could have thought they were playing. Actual I think the deer was toying with the bear. End result was the bear got so PO’ed at his inability to corner the deer that he took his frustration out on a nearby Hemlock. Pretty impressive don’t ever doubt the rage a bear can muster. This Hemlock was 3X the size of the bear but by the time he was finished it was toothpicks. Ever watch that sappy movie “The Bear?” By their behavior I always considered Bears to be “tripped out” on mushrooms or datura maybe even morning glory. Bears are psycho and I interact with them in nature with this in mind.
Eloquent, George, and well appreciated! Most hunters I know are not going to bother with defending their passion until that right is questioned and threatened. And every year there are more threats and more reasons to fight for the right to hunt, and protect if for future generations…We definitely need to have our voices heard, as you have said, and each of us needs to take the time to stand up and have that voice heard…The sacraments of liberty are the foundations of our hunting heritage, and unless we stand toe to toe against the opposition, we have failed in our responsibility, and in the blood of our ancestors who have given all they have to see us live with those freedoms….
Unfortunately this anti hunting BS is straight out of the U.N.s Charter for the 21st Century, other wise known as Agenda 21, as well the Iron Mountain Report..Tavistock, and other European think tanks..It is just another tool to destroy State and Individual Sovereignty Status, and create this group think state of mind to destroy Individual Liberty, and Private Property Rights straight across the board.. The group think people can not think for themselves, the public school system in this Country which as I’ve said many times was slowly twisted over many decades to bring about this dumbed down, tame, society, thus we are clashing, I get pissed at them because their simply saying they are perfect humans and we are barbarians…Yet they work for the world bankers FRNs, pay taxes, and their military scars and devastates humans, country’s, and animals all over the world…Their government has military in 146 nations world wide playing world police man…These people are sick in the head, someone else kills their food for them. plants or animals, and someone else kills men women and children, in the millions, so they can have a plastic tooth brush, tennis shoes, PC keyboard, and drive their car down and asphalt road on rubber tires…all from foreign oil…And all based on lies…We own enough oil and natural gas under our own nation to support us for 250 years…Its a little Alaskan Secret….Just Google Lindsey Williams, and the NON ENERGY CRISIS…
I’ve spent a lifetime being self sufficient, trekking about in the outdoors, admiring and eating many things in the forest these types of people wouldn’t have the first clue about..herbs, roots, plants, bugs, fish and game..It is there to admire and use… I just about throw up when I see these lies these people actually believe, claiming to be one of us but displaying and obvious disconnection from nature, truth, and even reality.. Some of my most awesome hunts were the challenges in the forest and a buck deer, and the buck beat me hands down…And I went to my MOUNTAIN HOME empty handed, but tickled none the less at the entertainment and another experience to add to the collection stored up in this mind.. of being out done again by and impressive buck…Once or twice that seven seconds let me tell you guys was very funny indeed, I was sneaking along one morning in the brush next to a Meadow in the Sawtooth Wilderness, and there is a slow moving stream going thru this spot..30 foot across and a couple feet deep with shallows and sand bars..I’m trying to get in position for a Bull Elk I had been stalking, when all the sudden I’m face to face with this buck, literally about six feet between us face to face…The look on his face was to die for..It seemed like and eternity, BUT I LAUGHED OUT LOUD at his shocked look..and when he blew up I had a shot, but was laughing to hard to take it..He jumped the stream at a sand bar and I had another shot, but it was no good, not clean enough for me, I was realizing in this seven seconds I knew this buck..we had played tag a few times, He was a four by four, with a cheater, and 32-34 wide spread..big black thick antlers..Well he runs about sixty yards down stream and comes back across the stream..By this time I had dropped my pack, tossed my lever gun aside..Browning 30-06..And pulled the 7mm Ultra off my back side and was running for a shot, and again I could not make it clean..so I watched him run through a couple hundred yards of standing dead lodge poles and head up to his basin, where i played him before and got beat…I was so happy this happened, I just laughed..I was lined up on him three times..But i will not shoot a deer unless I can make it over for him quick..That was not possible..Hindquarter shots just don’t cut it with me..It took me 45 minutes to find that 30-06, The camo pack was easy…I just wish i had had one of them little video cams strapped to my head, because this had to be super funny as hell…That was five years ago…Never saw the bull again either…That was one of the best mornings I ever spent in this life…
I have to admit, Greg, you stir some memories…and the fact is that none of these so called hunters have any to share….(I wonder why) Could be they have no comprehension of the REAL blessings of hunting, for aside from the obvious stock in our freezers, and the benefits of good health and character, they have no MEMORIES….(I wonder why, again)
The two I’ll share are similar enough in essence, but different enough to warrant telling both.
This last year, gobbler hunting, I had a slow season….Not much luck in bringing in an old boy, with long spurs…(for the uninitiated, long spurs are an indication of an old bird, and the older they are, the smarter they are, and the smarter they are, the more of a challenge they are….) So after bringing in a good number of birds with short spurs and short beards, I finally decided that the Good Lord was sending me a good bird for the pot, first….so, I finally took one on the next to last day. Well, after getting the short end of the stick shoved up me by the old birds, I waited until the last minute before calling it quits for the season, and hiking out…Well, almost to the last leg of the walk out, here jumps up in front of me the biggest long spur I have ever seen, and he hangs up there in mid-air about ten feet up, with the most gol-dern scared look on his face that I’ve ever seen! I had my old double slung over my shoulder, and faster than I have ever un-slung a gun before, had it looking down the barrel at him. Well, you know, I thought faster and moved faster than I think I could if I tried, but couldn’t pull the trigger on him….He was legally past the shooting hours….maybe only a few minutes, but he was also not one I had “brought to the gun” by my skill and turkey language.so, I left he go! And wished him luck the next season, with a loud shout and a laugh at his expression as he just knew I was going to pull the trigger on him….. Another challenge for the future!
And a good number of years, I had finally outfoxed an old swamp buck by coming in at odd hours and not making a peep, and standing out in the swamp water near an cottonmouth infested island, where a gator big enough to kill and eat a man for one sitting, was in residence…
Well, this old smart buck was clever, but here he comes in at just barely enough light for shooting hours…splash, splash…me with my old 30-30, hunkered up in a heavy jacket, carefully cocking my head to see him…Well, mister swamp buck himself, with gnarled old, black antlers from the swamp muck, had good ears, too, and he caught that little movement of mine, in cocking my head…It was then a standoff…Me, going to move first of him,,,,like an old western movie, with the bad guy drawing first..But, I figured this time, I better be the bad guy and draw down on him, while I had the jump. Well mister buck taught me a lesson that day, since I had never missed any dear that had come within 50 yards of me, even on the fly! But that day, one did! He made a move that looked perfectly like what would happen if you had taken a deer and turned him inside out by pulling his head out through his ass….I threw one at him and MISSED! The first miss in my life…I thought I was an old man that day, but blamed it on my bulky jacket! Not believing I could have missed, I went back all the way to my truck and got my old .44 mag. that I keep there, since I was going to search the swamp where the BIG gator was, and a handgun is all you want in there, if he grabs you, a rifle is just in the way….
Well after a number of years, I told my buddy that story, and he tells me the same buck pulled that same trick on him in the same swamp by the same island …and he missed TOO! We both got a laugh out of that…..
Last year in November while smokepole hunting for deer I was sitting under a big hemlock watching a area full of scraps and rubs. I had missed a nice 5 point whitetail the weekend before under the same tree, still don’t really know how I missed but thats the way it goes with the old smoke pole, anyway I was sitting under this hemlock listening to a cow elk barking and raising hell up the hill about a 100 yards away and all of a sudden these two pine cougars ( pine squirrels) started fighting and chasing each other around the tree I was sitting under. They both ran right over both of my legs two times and then went about 10 feet away and started sparing like a couple boxers, I was having so much fun watching them fight I didn’t even notice a 4 point buck that was about 15 feet behind me in the brush, he finally came out and the smoke pole did it’s job but the best part of that hunt was watching those damn squirrels. Archery hunting last year I saw a hummingbird pick a spider right out of the middle of his web and never even moved the web when he picked it out. I never knew hummingbirds would eat spiders or any other bug. If you go out on a hunt and don’t see everything there is to see you can really miss a lot of neat things. The antis will never understand this.
When you begin to hunt, you walk and wander and wonder what is going on, and where….and most of the baggage of your life walks around with you…After awhile, you begin to lose the baggage of civilization. You might still have it on you, but you begin to think and act as a natural animal of the forest, and the woods begin to have a harmony you can feel and sense..and you become a part of that..
How many people who take a “nature walk” will ever feel that?
How many will ever uncover a “natural” person, within their own selves?
Uncluttered, unworried, and simply “there”….
“That” is the way of a hunter….something no one will understand without becoming one…and something no one will appreciate without becoming one..
Let them rant and rage against us as “animal killers”….they have already killed the most treasured animal they have, within themselves…
I have to be honest. I think that tom remington sounds like a real 0!!! Thank You!!
A real O what? Am I missing the modern jargon for abbreviations? I could think of a few…..
But he “thinks”. Beautiful.