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Last year’s bear hunt in the state was supposed to be a week long but ended in only two days after thousands of hunters descended into Florida woods. As Matt Galka tells us, state officials will start planning this week for another possible hunt even though critics aren’t changing their stance.

American Sportsman Taxidermy is still working on bears brought in from 2015’s bear hunt.

“We have a few left from last year’s hunt, we should be done in a couple months,” said owner Charles Larry Quinn.

304 bears were killed in Florida’s first bear hunt in 20 years. The hunt went on despite public outcry and protests from animal rights groups.

“I think as long as they have the biological evidence, which it seems like they do, it’s just another feather in the state of Florida’s cap,” said Quinn.

Now fish and wildlife officials will consider proposals for another hunt Wednesday.  That could include breaking up the hunt into three four day periods. But Laura Bevan with the Humane Society of the United States says that’s not good enough.

“They are proposing different things and trying to make us feel better about killing bears and we as the public, we as bear lovers, are saying you don’t understand, we don’t want the hunt at all,” she said.

Other proposals include an identical hunt to last year’s, postponing another hunt for one year, or getting rid of it.

There have been anti-hunt protests already around the state, and on the other side, the National Rifle Association has been vocal in supporting its hunters.

The FWC meeting will be held in the small Panhandle town of Eastpoint – where two bear attacks have occurred in the past two years.

Anti-hunt advocates say that killing the animals won’t help cut down on interactions with humans…instead the state agency should invest time and money into bear proof trashcan measures to drive the animal from neighborhoods.