A self-defense bill dubbed "the cocaine bear bill" on social media would allow Floridians to protect themselves against aggressive bears without facing legal repercussions, giving residents "peace of mind," one of the legislation's sponsors said.
"If I came home from work and the headlights of my vehicle shined on the front porch, and a huge black bear was clawing at my front door, and my kids were inside, right now, you can't shoot that bear," state Rep. Jason Shoaf told Fox News. "I think that is absurd."
"I want to give Floridians the peace of mind that they can take action to protect their property, their family and their pets," the Republican added.
The bill, which would allow Floridians to use lethal force against a bear if they deem it necessary to save their lives, their pets, the lives of other people or to stop a bear from damaging their dwelling, passed the Republican-controlled state Senate on Wednesday 24-12 after the chamber made a clarification to the House version that people who lure bears to hunt them wouldn't be protected. The updated bill is headed back to the House for another vote.
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"If anyone tries to take advantage of this law for that reason, I can assure you they're going to end up in jail," Shoaf said. "We don't have any tolerance for cruelty to animals or for leveraging a self-defense law for hunting purposes here in the state of Florida."
SB-632, titled "The Taking of Bears," was nicknamed "the cocaine bear bill" online after Shoaf said Floridians have the right to protect themselves against the bears "that are on crack."
"If you run into one of these crack bears, you should be able to shoot it," he said on the House floor earlier this month.
Shoaf clarified that "there are no bears ingesting crack cocaine," but said it's based on language commonly used in northern Florida where he grew up to describe erratic people or animals.
"The opponents to this legislation often like to show you the cuddly pictures of the mama bear and the cubs and how calm and friendly they are," Shoaf told Fox News. "I wanted to paint a picture of what the bears this legislation is targeting act like."
Sen. Tina Polsky, a Democrat who voted against the bill, said "it was meant to make it easier to kill a bear."
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"Current law protects the right to self-protection," she told Fox News. "I don't think we need this additional permission structure on top of a gun-happy culture, on top of people thinking that bears are acting erratically or on crack."
Critics argue this legislation will result in increased deaths of the once-threatened species. The black bear population has recovered from just several hundred bears in the 1970s to over 4,000 today and is one of Florida’s most successful conservation efforts, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC). The Bear Hotline received approximately 7,298 calls in total statewide last year, according to FWC, 39% of which were conflict-oriented.
"There were some complaints that there is an overrun of bears," Polsky said. "My response to that was, well, then Fish and Wildlife Commission needs to deal with it, and they need to figure out what we're going to do if there are too many bears."
Democrats like Polsky who opposed the bill argued the state should do more to focus on other ways to limit human-bear interactions, such as expanding efforts to prevent bears from being attracted to trash in residential areas.
"There are better ways to manage bear encounters than to just sit there on your porch with a shotgun and ready to go as soon as you see a bear coming towards you," Polsky said.
But Shoaf said the bill’s critics are defending the lives of bears over citizens.
"They like to say, ‘well, only a few people have been injured and only a few people have been killed.’ I think that's ridiculous," he told Fox News. "If anyone has been injured or killed, we need to take it very seriously."
