Welcome, Lindsay Baker here for Action Hour podcast. We have an emergency here with Florida

black bears who are in danger of being shot in their dens. Now, Florida hasn’t hunted black

bears in 10 years, but that could change fast.

On May 4th, activists flooded Lake Aola Park with signs Chance and Roy motion, fighting to stop

a proposed bear hunt that could kill hundreds of bears this December. Welcome. I have the

group here from Be An Animal Hero, advocates from Be An Animal Hero.

Here with me, I’m going to go right into my first question with founder Susan Hargrave. Susan,

after 10 years, they cut off the hunting, which was horrific and it stunned everyone. Why do

they want to do it again? They have a short memory of the world being aghast at the horrific

images 10 years ago.

It’s a new FWC commission and FWC commission, what people don’t realize is are stopped with

hunters and landowners and hunters. What do they like to do? They like to hunt and they have

been planning to bring back the hunt for quite some time and they keep trying and now here

they are bringing it back again and it’s horrific. It’s horrendous.

It’s like having Ted Bundy in charge of driving women to the prom. The FWC are all hunters and

hunters like to hunt and that’s why we are here right now talking to people to please help. The

bears need your help.

My first man to my next question, I’m going to ask this for Skye, hi Skye. You were at the recent

protest, correct? Or you certainly helped to organize it. Can you tell me a little bit about what

happened and how many people were there and how it went? I was not there personally,

unfortunately, I did help, but I think that’s probably a better question for one of them who was

actually.

Okay, Corinne, we’ll come back to you then Corinne, would you like to address that? Absolutely,

can you repeat the question? Yeah, you were at the protest. Tell us what happened, what were

people saying, what was their reaction, tell us a little bit about it. Absolutely, from my

experience a lot of people were out there, they did not agree for this law to pass, for these

innocent bears to be killed, to be mantled on a wall or be used as a trophy or be put on as a rug

or anything like that.

I even witnessed there was a couple of hunters out there as well, so people that actually hunt

other animals and they thought it was wrong, because from their perspective, they looked at it

as a trophy hunt, because there are hunters, not all hunters are technically painted evil, as we

want to say, some hunters definitely use it as just only for resources, and those were the ones

that was upset with the hunters that’s trying to take advantage of this law to make it just for

trophy, if that makes sense. It does, I got it. Susan, do you want to weigh in on that? They don’t

have to kill to live, they just want to kill to kill for fun.

They have passed a law where it now makes it legal to kill a bear if you’re threatened. Oh, I feel

threatened. Can you imagine if people could just kill anyone that threatened them? We

wouldn’t have that many beings left on the earth, I think.

The fact is that, yes, Corinna is correct, this is definitely a trophy hunt. At the last one, 10 years

ago, there was one hunter that just chopped the paws off the bear. Last year, we had monitor

stations that the FWC has set up, and we had the photo that you keep showing there of the

bear.

That was taken by one of our monitors, Robbie Ruderman, who is with our Wildlife Coexistence

presentations, and he was at the check station taking these heartbreaking photos, and that’s

really what stopped it last time. They were embarrassed by the world’s reaction. This is, you’re

not going to believe this, this year they’re not, they don’t want monitoring stations, they’re not

going to have anything.

Lake City, they were supposed to kill 304 bears in a week, they killed 298 in 48 hours. They were

coming in so fast they had to call the hunt off in two days. There has not been another Florida

bear hunt since 2015.

There are supporters of a Florida bear hunt for population control. Okay, let’s address that

question, and whoever wants to jump in on this. They say that population is population control

and human interaction.

We’ll cover population control. Talk, go ahead, Susan. This is how they count bears.

They take one small area, let’s just think of it as a postage stamp. Let’s just think of it as the

state of California. You would take perhaps Monterey Bay, and you would count the scat of the

certain species, and then you would just multiply it for the entire state, and that’s the number.

It’s a guessing game, and they’re not taking into account the bears who are killed, 300 already

this year, from accidents, car accidents, and development, and construction, and so they’re not

taking into consideration that. Why aren’t they taking into consideration that? A lot of people

are fooled by the name, the Florida Wildlife Conservation Commission, because they assume

that, well, that must be their job. They must conserve, but in fact, they’re not elected.

They’re appointed, and they don’t have to have any background, apart from the appointment is

made by the governor. So the governor often, same thing happened last time and the last time

to Rick Scott, he just gave the people that helped him get in, the wealthy landowners and

hunters, the positions on the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission. There was one

commissioner last time that had a whole building for the heads of the animals that she killed,

and one of the things she really wanted to do was to kill a Florida panther.

So here she is on the conservation commission, and she wanted to bring back killing Florida

panthers, so she could add bat head on her wall, and the people, I’ll tell you who is asking for

this, an international hunting club. So make no mistake, these are hunters who are asking for

this hunt, and the FWC commission is stocked with hunters, and they always have been. I’ve

been going to their meetings for 36 years.

It’s always hunters. One meeting, I was behind one of them, and their screensaver was them

holding up the heads of all the different animals that they’ve killed, the blood still running out

of their noses. The fact is that the hunters are asking for this, and the public is being ignored

just like it was ignored 10 years ago.

There’s definitely information out there that there has been an increase in the bears with the

interaction with the population. There has been news reports of that. Well, first we have to look

at the type of species.

So the Florida black bear used to be endangered. This is a species that was almost wiped out,

and now we’re going ahead and putting a label saying that we need to have a population

control. Like how can one species that was almost wiped out completely, now within just a few

years, within 10 years, now we have to control the population.

That’s the first question we have to ask. Number two, when we look at it from a reproductive

state, a female Florida black bear, just to have one cub is around two to three years, sometimes

up to nine years. So even when it came to Susan, when they’re doing the math, the math has to

be completely wrong, because they’re not just pumping out babies like a roach, like a

cockroach.

You know what I mean? That makes sense, right? Like cockroaches, when they have babies, like

thousands, right? But with bears, it’s a way slower rate, extremely slow rate. And then number

three is when it comes to the real estate boom. Right now, we’re more real estate.

We need more land. More people want to move down to Florida. So is it truly population

control, or do we just need more land? And we’re taking over the land and the habitat that the

black bear lives in, and then creating rules and regulations to serve our own particular purpose

and gain when it comes to finance.

Right. Does anyone else want to weigh in, Sky? Yeah, absolutely. I think the danger lies in the

fact that this bear species is the bear species of Florida.

It’s the natives bear species of Florida. And with the numbers already where they’re at with this

species, if we allow hunting to happen and the numbers to double and triple and continue, then

there is fear of extinction and fear of the fact that black bears, which are the Florida bear, won’t

be here for much longer. And that’s the fear.

And that’s the part that no one wants to talk about, especially the hunters. And what breaks my

heart, too, is in December, they’re not out and about looking to terrorize humans. They’re

hibernating, specifically black bears.

They are in a state of hibernation called Torpor, and they pretty much go in their den. It’s a

semi-hibernation, and they conserve their energy. So they’re not out and about hurting

humans and causing destruction, but they’re actually just, you know, with their babies and

conserving their energy and making sure that they can survive during the winter.

Right. And Susan, would you go in a little bit into, during the hunt, what happens? That the two

days of mass bear slaughter in the woods that happened in 2015, where cubs were killed,

mother, the first bear killed was a lactating mother. It’s hard to comprehend that this is going

to be worse, because they’re going to chase bears with dogs.

They’re going to bait bears. They’re going to use pneumatic bow devices. They are planning on

having the killing.

They want it for 23 days in December. Now, it was two days last time, and it was 320 bears. And

activists were saying, hey, you’ve reached your so-called limit.

They’re even allowing 10 people to shoot up one bear, and one of them don’t even have a

permit. If you have one person with a permit. So you can have guest hunters.

So that is definitely for the people who make money on organizing hunting expeditions, and

they might be outfitters, and they’ll say, oh, come on, and you have a chance to kill a Florida

black bear. The hunting hasn’t been open for 10 years. This and it will cost you this much only.

So they are planning more of a massacre on our Florida black bears, and 92% of the individuals

that were surveyed in the NAPL Daily News Survey were against it. Now, it’s normally 95%.

Definitely, most of the Florida human population does not want to see bears killed.

And those call numbers that they quote, it’s actually calls about all bears, sightings. They want

you to think that they’re saying, oh, it’s all people complaining, and it’s some sort of wildlife coexistent

issue. It’s not.

The fact is that the people are under the misimpression that the FWC wants to hear, and they’re

thrilled. A bear went through the back of my yard. I saw a bear and a cub go in the woods.

They put it down as a call, like a nuisance call, but it’s not. They’re thrilled. Yeah.

And I think a lot of it is they say the garbage management that draws them into the yards. But

the fact that there’s only been one documented death in all the years is evidence that it can’t be

how they’re portraying them. I do have a little clip.

As we see more bears coming in the area, foraging for food. I wouldn’t say it’s a nuisance thing

or something. It’s just something that animals do.

They’re animals. That’s the reason why they live outside. And I think it probably could have

been avoided.

Others here tell me that while the attack is highly unusual, they’ve noticed not only more bears,

but closer interactions. I can tell you exactly why there’s more interaction. People are going in

and they’re taking saw palmetto berries and they’re selling them to health food stores.

And that is the food source. And there’s also, of course, more construction. And since COVID, it

used to be 1,000 people a day moving into Florida.

Now it’s approximately 1,250 a day moving into Florida. So we do have more people. And then

also, I believe that this recent allowance of people to kill or harass bears if they feel threatened

is going to create more situations because it used to be the person might just hide away.

But now let’s say they think, oh, great, there’s a bear. I’m going to say I feel threatened. I’m

going to go now after the bear.

That’s going to create more situations like that. That makes a lot of sense. Let’s give some of

the dates.

There’s protests coming. We want to tell people what they can do, what action they can take

now. So wherever you are in the state of Florida, if you go to beardefenders.org, then you can

see if you are a Florida citizen where you can go and join the protest.

May 20th and 21st, in Ocala, will be the FWC commission meetings. I call them FWC sham

commission meetings because what they do is they actually give you a minute to speak,

perhaps. And they actually have in the agenda, they’ll say it may or may not be moved at any

time.

We may or may not discuss it. It’s up to us. But having said that, it is very important to attend

these meetings.

I’m really hoping that Corinne Sutton will come because Corinne is a manly man. And I hope

that’s okay that I say that. I hope nobody’s offended.

And a lot of times it does seem to be macho type men, nothing against macho type men, but

that want to do this, that want to kill. And to have someone there that is not that way, it could

help a lot. And really, we need to use these meetings.

And that’s what we are doing to get our message out. And that’s why we got the first word in in

this particular communication. When I knew they were going to head it this way, two months

ago, I called local people and we all gathered together.

We all united and we created that rally in Orlando gathering people together because we have

to lead the conversation because we can’t depend on the FWC meetings to get a word in, really.

Well, that brings us back to what we can do. And let’s drill down on that and make sure

everybody that’s watching will please, first of all, share out this broadcast.

We’ll all be sharing it up. But what else can they do, guys? What can they do? They can contact

Governor DeSantis and we have the contact information on our website. If you go to

beananimalhero.org and you go to the founder’s blog, you’ll actually see I had an op-ed piece in

the Sunset Knoll in Orlando and also South Florida.

And it actually has in the op-ed piece who to contact underneath that when you go to that oped

piece. So you can see that we’re asking people to contact the FWC commission because, yes,

let’s just say it’s loaded, the commission, but still we need to comment. We need those emails

going to FWC.

We need those phone calls. We need people from all over the world because they need to

realize that if this goes ahead, they are going to regret it. They are going to be on the world

stage.

They are going to be embarrassed. They are going to be shown not to be doing the opposite of

conserve, which actually means to protect from harm, conserve. That is not in my book what

they are planning to do to Florida’s black bears.

And if, I mean, we don’t have an environmentalist on, but could you imagine, I know one thing,

I did interview an environmentalist about wolves. They took the wolves out of an area and it

actually caused streams to dry up. So if you took the bears out, imagine if there were no bears,

what would happen? Anybody want to weigh in on that? I mean, if this really goes through, how

serious is this? Well, I used to rehabilitate injured wildlife for 16 years, so I actually studied this

so I can wear the environmentalist hat and the animal rights act.

Go for it. And the fact is that they are a keystone species. So even frogs are too an alligators.

So if you take them out of the equation, the wildlife coexistence, it is going to affect all of the

species because they are all interlocked. And we don’t even know everything that a bear could

be doing that helps the other animals. We don’t even know.

I mean, they could host a certain type of bug that likes to go on bear fur, which feeds another

type of animal, which is another insect. And we don’t know. We don’t know what could happen.

And I know in Ireland, when I go there, and Europe, they mourn the fact that they don’t have

bears anymore. They mourn them. We don’t want to be in that situation.

And also, let’s think of the individuals that will be sleeping with their families, having no idea.

Mass, pandemonium, bloody massacre that’s in their midst by putting people, letting people

loose in the woods with high-powered weapons, pneumatic devices, high-powered archery

boards, bait. They will just be going out.

They will wake up and think, oh, man, we need to all get together for this. I don’t care where a

person lives. Really, please go to BeAnAnimalHero.org and click on the article about the bears.

And then you can read that. But you can also, more importantly, just see where to contact the

last one that was stopped. The governor realized that this was really going to damage his

political career, having any part of this.

Wonderful. So all of us can do that, whether we live in a resident of Florida or not, correct? All of

us can contact him. It will still have a tremendous impact, particularly because he has political

aspirations to move forward to a bigger and better.

But we are actually pretty close to out of time. We want to talk a little bit about

BeAnAnimalHero, the transition, what you guys are all involved in. So let’s just go around and

talk about that for a few minutes before we, unfortunately, have to close.

So, Susan, why don’t you start off? There is a transition from the foundation that you started

many years ago, and you’ve done tremendous work. People can check it out at This Is the

Same. Correct.

This is the address from now on. Well, I’m thrilled to say that, yes, I’ve been educating since

1980 to prevent animal cruelty, because that’s how we’re going to turn the tap off of cruelty.

But I’m thrilled to say that I don’t feel like I’m here by myself anymore yelling in the wilderness.

I have a team with me, and I have a team of vegans, the animal heroes. We go into the schools,

and we actually educate about being kind to all species of animals. I’ll let Corinne and Skye tell

about what they do with Animal Hero Kids.

Yeah, we’ll start with Skye. Skye, talk a little bit. What is Viganza? I’m still a little confused about

that.

So, Viganza is the magical superhero squad that roams the Earth and saves animals and

protects all animals, regardless of species. Specifically, the Viganza series is targeted for

children. We know children love superheroes.

We know children love magic and creation and imagination. So, it’s just very powerful, the fact

that Corinne and Susan and I get to go into these schools as these characters. I play Courage

the Mermaid, who is a mermaid from the deep seas, and she protects all of her Finn friends,

and she lets these children know that fish are friends.

And we all play a different, very vital role. So, it’s been really cool. It’s been really beautiful to

realize that impact because children are the future.

And also, you know, part of the book, it’s really awesome that we’re here today talking about

bears, because in one of the series, we actually have a situation where Viganza freezes the

hunters that are about to hunt bears. So, it’s just like a little slither, the fact of what we do, kind

of showcasing the children that there are real harms in the world, and it’s never animals. It’s,

you know, mostly humans.

And what we really want to just promote is be an animal hero and protect animals. That’s

awesome. So, Corinne, can you weigh in now about that? I know it’s pretty exciting what you

guys do.

Absolutely. So, yeah, I played the character Freedom, similar to Courage the Mermaid, but mine

is just with any type of animal that flies. And exactly what Courage was saying, well, what Scott

was saying, yeah, I mean, it’s a good way to educate children when it really goes on in a PG

way, you know, because obviously, like you saw in the comic book, we show what hunters are

doing with bears, but we make it a little bit more PG versus the reality, you know, because

obviously we show reality when kids would be traumatized.

But it also plants little seeds into the adults as well, because when they’re reading these books

to their children, they can realize some of their faults and how they can correct it as well. Right.

And so I’m gonna let you jump in.

So is this happening just in Florida? Are you guys all live in Florida? Or is this more? Are you

spread? I know you probably have aspirations to spread more, but where are you guys doing

this? Are you all in the same state and everything? Do you do this all around the world? Sure. So

you’re doing it all around the world? Absolutely. All around the world.

We actually just got back from out of town to if I maces and let them know that we were just in

Colorado at a sanctuary, which was really, really beautiful at Loving Arms Sanctuary. And we

went to a school, a creative arts school. We were able to speak to children who are beautiful,

beautiful artists.

And it was really, it was really awesome. So it’s great. It’s not just in Florida.

It’s nationwide, worldwide, and we’re hoping to continue that. Okay, Susan, I’m going to give

you the last word here. You can go ahead and show the book.

I really wanted to show that so you can see Corinne and Courage the Mermaid here. Awesome.

That’s a graphic teen novel.

And this is our newest one, Began’s Animal Heroes Guide to Save Animals and the Earth. And

the artists are on Amazon. They’re on animalherokids.org or beananimalhero.org. And if you

buy them through us, then we get more funding for our programs.

We gift five schools to school libraries. And we were also in Ireland, Luxembourg, England, and

we were launching different books over there. And so we were actually on the front page of the

Dublin News as the world’s first plant-based superheroes.

They actually called us vegan. And that’s why I created veganza. So we get that word vegan in

there.

Sorry, that’s just brilliant, Susan. I love the work you’re doing. And if you ever need another

character, I’m down to play one.

I’m totally serious. I would love to do it. But anyway, beyond that, I’d love to have you on again

and talk more about what you guys are doing.

But we do want to iterate at the end here about the bears. Let’s make one more quickly about

the bears and what people can do. Go ahead, Susan.

Go to beananimalhero.org to see where to attention your comments, whether you’re in Florida

or not, it doesn’t matter. So we want people to contact Governor DeSantis. We have the phone

number and email of the FWC and him on our website.

And we also have the information for May 20th and May 21st, the meetings in Ocala of the FWC

commission. You’ll have one to three minutes to address the commissioners. But you have to

be there for mainly two days to get to that point, because they may or may not, they have the

complete freedom to say, oh, we’re not talking about it now.

We’re going to talk about it later. There’s too many people. But so it’s a plan on being there for

two days.

And also we are looking for people to do some banner surprises, because we have quickly that

when you it was on the news on Channel 13 news, you could see that big bear banner. And it’s

about five feet by 20 feet. And we need people to help hold it in the surprise situations legally,

but yet surprising.

That’s awesome. Well, you guys are doing amazing work. Does anybody have any last words

they want to throw in before we go? You’re doing amazing work.

Oh, thank you. And I salute you for your perseverance and your long term work with your show.

So I was on it.

Yeah, you were on it back in 2018, right? Yes. And so good for you for, you know, really sticking

with it, of course, because it’s hard to be dedicated, but not so much when once you realize the

amount of suffering in the world for animals, it’s almost like we have a weight on our shoulders.

And then to move forward is becomes harder.

So when I see people like you that are continue moving forward and are here for the long haul,

speaking up for the animals in in the way that you do, I just have to commend you also for your

sweet. Thank you for saying that. You guys are all awesome.

I would love to have you on individually again. And we’ll talk more about being animal hero. I

just want to make a video too.

So yeah, we want to see that. Okay, and this is Remember, everyone, download the app on

chain TV. It’s totally free.

Our streaming network. There’s so much great programming on there, all sorts of things. We

also interviews, but much, much more cooking shows, documentaries, bodybuilding.

We have Corinne on it. We have so many great things on there for you guys to see. Please

watch it.

Yeah. Thank you all so much again. We’ll see you next time.

People, please take action. This is extremely important. Go to be an animal hero dot org.