CHASSE À L'OURS AU NEW-JERSEY

[Animal 0]

CHASSE À L'OURS AU NEW-JERSEY---- DES ACTIVISTES ARRÊTÉS


12/08/2005

VERNON -- Four opponents of the ongoing bear hunt in New Jersey, including an East Windsor woman, were arrested yesterday for allegedly interfering with hunters and police.

The arrests came on the third day of the six-day hunt that has seen more than 200 bears killed so far, state officials said.

One of the arrestees, Theresa Fritzges, 57, of East Windsor, is part of a group that opposes the hunt and is determined to move in and help wounded bears.

Fritzges is the Government Affairs Coordinator for the New Jersey Branch of the Animal Rights Alliance, according to the group’s website.

Attempts to contact Fritzges at her East Windsor home were unsuccessful as her husband, Bruce Fritzges, said she could not be reached and declined to comment himself.

Angela Metler, 49, of Highland Lakes, is the director of the same group as Fritzges and was also arrested in the protest.

Authorities identified the others arrested as Albert Kazemian, 49, of Highland Lakes, and Janet Piszar, 52, of Millburn.

It is not known at this time if Kazemian or Piszar are affiliated with the same group.

Karen Hershey, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Environmental Protection, said the arrests occurred at Wawayanda State Park.

It is illegal to obstruct or make physical contact with a person who is legally hunting in New Jersey, to get in between a hunter and his or her prey or to attempt to influence the behavior of the prey to interfere with the hunting. Violations are punishable by fines of between $100 and $500.

A group of animal rights activists have maintained a steady presence at Wawayanda State Park, one of five locations where hunters take the bears they’ve shot to be registered by the state. On opening day of the hunt, they wore bright orange "Wounded Bear Rescue’’ T-shirts and pledged to go out into the woods to look for wounded animals and keep tabs on hunters.

The New Jersey Animal Rights Alliance and the Bear Education and Resource group sued the state last week in a late bid to stop the hunt, but two courts denied the request. Janine Motta, a spokeswoman for the Animal Rights Alliance, said she had no information about Wednesday’s arrests. A telephone message left with the other group was not immediately returned.

The hunt, New Jersey’s second in 35 years, is being held to reduce the number of black bears in the wake of rising numbers of nuisance complaints and bear sightings.

On Tuesday, the second day of the hunt, 66 bears were killed. On opening day, 136 bears were killed. In the last hunt, in 2003, 328 bears were killed.

Besides the arrests, the state is investigating one allegation of illegal baiting, according to Martin McHugh, director of the state Division of Fish and Wildlife. Under New Jersey law, hunters are banned from shooting from a tree stand or blind if they are less than 300 feet from a bait pile.



The Trentonian 2005
-------------------------------------

Local activist calls hunt a massacre
12/06/2005

An animal activist from East Windsor was among several who risked life and limb yesterday trying to tend to wounded bears out in the wild.


Terry Fritzges, a animal rights advocate, said that the hunt "is a massacre. It’s a slaughter of innocent life."


She said that the hunt is just a trophy hunt, and she wants to do whatever she possibly can to help the bears.

"I’m not worried about my life at all," Fritzges said, "bears do not attack people."

She said the hunters are what she fears.

Angie Metler, of Highland Lakes, and director of the New Jersey Animal Rights Alliance, said bears are the gentlest creatures.

"Bears are like big chipmunks," she said. "They love to forage and eat and are considered omnivores."

Metler said that the organization, and herself directly, receive a lot of hate mail and death threats.

Fritzges said she will be walking on public trails to look for and protect the bears she can see, by leading them to safety.

"Most of the bears we are able to treat are called in from people who have them in their yards or find them in difference places," she said.

Fritzges will be going back and forth all week to continue to help in the effort to protect the bears.

BY THE NUMBERS:

New Jersey’s bear hunt, by the numbers:

- 1,600: Size, in square miles, of six-county region where bear hunt is in effect.

- 675: Weight, in pounds, of biggest bear bagged in 2003 hunt.

- 413: Weight, in pounds, f biggest female bear killed in 2003.

- 328: Number of bears killed in 2003 hunt.

- 233: Number killed in Sussex County.

- 200: Area of a hunter’s body, in square inches, that must be covered in fluorescent orange.

- 80: Percentage of hunters who used shotguns to kill bears in 2003 hunt.

- 54: Number of bears confirmed killed as of 2:30 p.m. Monday.

- 8: Weight, in ounces, of newborn black bear cubs.

- 2: Number of animal rights groups that sued to stop 2005 bear hunt.

- 1: Number of bears that can be killed by any one hunter.

------

Source: New Jersey Division of Fish and Wildlife

-- AP



The Trentonian 2005