Carlos Guillermo Smith launches letter campaign urging Gov. DeSantis to stop bear hunt

TALLAHASSEE, FLA. 5/2/25-Sen. Carlos Guillermo Smith, D-Orlando, during debate Friday at the Capitol in Tallahassee. COLIN HACKLEY PHOTO

A decade ago, hunters in Florida controversially killed hundreds of black bears in just two days. Now, Sen. Carlos Guillermo Smith wants to stop another animal “massacre.”

The Orlando Democrat has launched a letter-writing campaign to urge Gov. Ron DeSantis to stop Florida’s first black bear hunt since 2015.

“It’s going to be a brutal massacre,” Smith told Florida Politics, “as it has been in the past.”

Smith said more than 200 people already sent messages to the Governor as of Monday morning as part of the effort.

“This is not wildlife conservation — it’s cruelty,” Smith wrote in an email blast to supporters. “And even worse, there will be no oversight to ensure hunters don’t exceed these brutal limits.”

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) last month voted 4-1 to allow a bear hunt later this year. Rule proposals for the hunt will be discussed at an August meeting.

According to the agency, the black bear population steadily rose over the past three decades and 4,000 bears now live in the state. That’s the highest population of black bears in any state that doesn’t allow bear hunting.

But the last time Florida authorized a hunt, in 2015, officials quickly called it off. Hunters killed 300 bears in two days, in some regions exceeding state caps by double within the first 24 hours. Outrage prompted the state to opt against holding a similar hunt the next year.

But officials this year say an increasing number of human interactions with bears shows the need to cull the herd. The Legislature last year voted to expand rules allowing the killing of bears to protect people or property. Now, the state expects to allow trophy hunters a shot at the animals for a period later this year.

Smith said the hunt remains unnecessary and cruel. And this time, he doesn’t want hundreds of bears to be tagged before protesting the killings.

“In 2015, I stood with hundreds of Floridians to protest a state-sanctioned black bear hunt that saw more than 300 black bears — including nursing mothers — slaughtered in just two days,” Smith wrote in the Sunday email blast. “Officials tried to call it ‘wildlife management.’ But we know what it was: a massacre. And because we spoke out, we stopped the cruelty. Now they’re trying to do it again.”

He cited a number of controversial rules also called out by animal rights groups like Humane World for Animals. The hunt, based on early rule proposals, will allow the use of feeding stations to attract bears, the deployment of dogs to chase the prey, and the killing of bears near dens, despite concern that nursing cubs will likely die if their mothers are killed.

Smith also criticized allowing bow hunting, which will cause “needless pain and suffering.”

The emails, sent from Smith’s campaign account, link to a mobilizing page with a cut-and-paste email voters can send to DeSantis’ Office. While FWC commissioners are appointed, the agency reports to the Governor’s Office, and Smith said if DeSantis spoke against the hunt it would probably mean the end of the event. The message urges DeSantis to “stop this hunt and instead focus on enacting wildlife management strategies grounded in science and community input.”

Smith noted he opposed the nomination of FWC Chair Rodney Barreto precisely out of fear he would bring back the bear hunt.

“It’s not wildlife management,” Smith said. “It’s barbaric. It’s inhumane. It has nothing to do with wildlife management. It’s pure entertainment for Trophy Hunters.”