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Dressed in a bear costume and hauling a dummy of New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, Friends of Animals’ Edita Birnkrant fearlessly paraded into the state capitol building to disrupt business as usual. That’s because she, like many other animal advocates across the state, is outraged about the upcoming state-sponsored mass shooting of black bears. TheirTurn reported on location:

Some of the bears will be lured out of their habitat with food. During a press conference about the bear hunt on the steps of the statehouse, state Senator Raymond Lesniak, who introduced legislation to ban the hunt, said, “Baiting isn’t hunting; it’s target shooting.”

From left to right: NJ State Senator Raymond Lesniak, a dummy of NJ Governor Chris Christie in a bear-proof garbage can, Friends of Animals’ Edita Birnkrant

During the massacre, which starts on Monday, December 7th, hundreds of bears, including cubs and nursing mothers, will be hunted down and killed with guns and arrows.

NJ Governor Chris Christie receives a manual pat down at the NJ State House

Governor Christie claims that the annual hunt protects the public from bear attacks, but Senator Lesniak and the advocates who gathered at the capitol building argue that only bear-proof garbage cans coupled with public education will keep the bears out of residential areas. Dispensing licenses to kill, they say, doesn’t protect the public; it merely rewards Chris Christie’s pro-hunting campaign donors.

NJ Fish & Wildlife promotes killing, not protecting, its animal residents

For more information about the bear hunt and to take action on their behalf, please visit Friends of Animals and the Animal Protection League of NJ Action Center.

A Fish & Wildlife employee weighs a bear during a previous hunt (photo: AP)

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie has until early December to sign or veto a bill banning gestation crates, the small metal cages that intensely confine female breeding pigs for most of their adult lives. He vetoed a similar bill in 2013, claiming that pig farmers made a more persuasive argument than the activists.

Even though the current bill was passed in the House and Senate and has the support of 93% of NJ residents, Christie has suggested to Iowa farmers that he intends to veto it. Iowa, a key state in the race for President, is the nation’s biggest pork producer.

In an editorial on November 21st. the Asbury Park Press, a local NJ newspaper, wrote, “If he vetoes the ban, he’s a lost cause. We can then be certain that from here forward everything Christie does as governor will be based on how it will influence his presidential campaign.”

Jon Stewart, host of Comedy Central’s Daily Show, catapulted Christie’s political dilemma into the national spotlight in a comical eight minute segment with a very strong anti-gestation crate point of view:

https://youtu.be/9fV1b5vHH80

In late October, Jane Velez-Mitchell spoke to a panel of guests about gestation crates. During the interview, HSUS Public Policy Manager Matthew Dominguez said that the political landscape has changed since 2013 and that Iowa voters support a ban on gestation crates.

If Christie does, in fact, veto the gestation crate bill – for a second time – he will assuredly become a target of the animal rights community.

Chris Christie (Photo: Lee Day)

Gestation crates are being phased out in several states and by several pork producers at the request of their customers, including major corporations like McDonalds. However, far more work needs to be done to eliminate these crates in the U.S. and worldwide.

No amount of helicopters, night-vision goggles and park rangers can stop the poaching of elephants as long as state-sanctioned carving factories in China are creating ivory products that are meeting the demand of Chinese consumers. If  China banned the import and sale of ivory, the sophisticated poaching operations that supply the market would probably vanish, as demand in the rest of the world is much lower. That said, we must also strengthen the anti-ivory laws in the U.S.