Florida Restored the Right to Defend Against Bears, 4 Cases in 6 months

Bear approaches door of home. Image from Winter Springs, Florida, Police Department

On June 21, 2024, Governor DeSantis of Florida signed HB87, restoring the right of people to protect themselves, their pets, and their homes against aggressive black bears. The law went into effect on July 1, 2024.  

From July to December, 2024, FWC recorded four instances where people killed bears, but were not charged under the new law.  There were seven situations where people were charged with illegal kills. In 2021, during the same period, there were 17 illegal kills recorded, in 2022 there were seven illegal kills recorded during the same period. In 2023, there were seven illegal kills recorded in the same period (July – December).   In 2024, one of the defensive situations where the new law made a difference made the news. From the account. The defender used a 9mm pistol.  

The FWC said Tittle called his dogs, but the puppy did not return to him. The man grabbed his larger dog, but it pulled him toward the bear, and he ended up on the ground, officials said.

“I noticed that it was a bear. I called the dogs, and only the big dog came. Me and him kind of wrestled around here, and I was trying to hold him down. He wanted to go back because he wasn’t coming back,” Tittle told News 6.

Tittle said he saw the bear near his pup, so he attempted to fire a “warning shot” to scare the animals but struck the bear, according to the FWC, which said the animal tried to climb a tree but fell to the ground.

Most bears killed by humans in Florida are killed in vehicle accidents. In the last five years, 1,467 bears have been killed in vehicle accidents, about 293 per year.  Officials killed 73 bears in the same period, about 15 per year. The number of bears killed under the new law will probably be lower than those killed by Florida officials, amounting to about 3% of those killed on the highways in vehicle collisions.  The hunt conducted in 2015 only stabilized bear numbers for a few years. 

 Image from Florida Wildlife Commission 

Ten years ago, the bear population in Florida was estimated at 4,350. No official estimation has been recorded in the last ten years. A study of the Florida bear population is underway. The current number is probably over 7,000. 

On May 5, 2025, the a fatal bear attack was the first officially recorded in Florida. On June 24, 2025, a pistol was used to kill a black bear in self defense under the new law in Ft. Walton Beach Florida. 

“The bear did not seem right,” records show he told an investigating wildlife official. “It was not afraid of me and was walking around during the daylight.”

He grabbed a pistol, he said, to protect himself and his wife. From behind a cracked door, he yelled at the bear to go away. Robinson said it knocked over his griddle and walked toward him. The bear, a male, weighed roughly 180 pounds and was estimated to be between 2 and 4 years old, according to wildlife officials.

“I felt extremely threatened and thought the bear was going to come through the door,” records show he told an investigating wildlife officer. “So I then began shooting the bear.”

Robinson shot it 12 times, records show. He stopped firing when the bear turned away from him, and he watched as it walked a few dozen feet before dropping to the ground.

In spite of dire warnings by those opposed to nearly any killing of bears in Florida, the number of bears killed under the new law has resulted in the death of an insignificant number of bears. The total numbers will be available when the 2025 report from the FWC is published. The number is projected to be less than nine in the first full year. 

The bear population in Florida has to be managed. A number of bears need to be removed to stabilize the population. The removal of problem bears, which do not fear people, is the best first step to bring the population down to desired levels.  When the number of bears removed are less than four percent of the number of bears killed in vehicle accidents, they are insignificant to the total population numbers. To the people who have to deal with problem bears, they are very significant. 

©2025 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.

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