iStockphoto / mirceax
Florida representative Jason Shoaf, a Republican rep. whose district is in the panhandle and includes portions of Leon County, put forth a bill that would allow lethal force against bears without a hunting permit.
Prior to the bill being voted on and approved by a 16-9 vote from the House committee on Tuesday, as the bill’s sponsor Rep. Shoaf spoke about the supposed dangers of bears and the need for Floridians to be able to protect themselves.
His comments have since gone viral as he talked about black bears on crack cocaine breaking into homes, something so far-fetched and detached from reality many wonder where he came up with the idea in the first place if not from the Cocaine Bear fictionalized movie. His comments can be heard below:
Ahead of the vote, Rep. Jason Shoaf said “This bill is not about bears. Bears are cute and cuddly and an amazing creature ― those aren’t the bears we’re talking about in this bill. We’re talking about the ones that are on crack, and they break your door down and they’re standing in your living room growling and tearing your house apart. So when you run into one of these crack bears, you should be able to shoot it. Period.”
According to a report in Yahoo! News, he added that these alleged ‘crack bears’ have become a “major problem” in the Florida Panhandle which is fascinating because this is the first time I or anyone else I know living in Florida has heard about the supposed “crack bears” rampaging.
I think most reasonable voters would agree citizens should be able to protect themselves from bear attacks. Nobody would argue a bear’s life is more important than a person’s. The problem, however, is with this bill it essentially gives my fellow Floridians free reign to shoot bears on their property if they felt like (or like and said) they were being attacked. It removes the need for hunting permits and opens a very slippery slope.
As a born and raised Floridian and a former member of the Boy Scouts of America who has camped all over the state, I have never seen a black bear at any point in the wild. There are an estimated 4,000+ black bears in the state of Florida. Crack bears? Never heard that one before until now.