LETTER: Let’s hear truth behind bear attack

It took 160 years to disprove New Jersey Division of Fish & Wildlife’s false claim this year that a bear killed a New Jersey teenager in 1852 when the event was proven to have taken place in Arkansas, according to The New York Times.

Will it take Fish & Wildlife another 160 years years to finally provide the public with the full autopsy results which include toxicology tests to find the answers to the questions raised in the recent article about the supposedly “predatory” attack by a bear that killed a Rutgers student in West Milford?

Will the final autopsy show whether the bear’s mauling of the victim occurred before the man died or after?

How does a victim lose his pants and socks running from a bear? A recent article quoted Fish & Wildlife officers as saying that the “pants, phone, and socks of the victim were found in close proximity to the body, stuck to the briars” and “The black and red sneaker was found 20 yards from the trail. Fifteen (15) yards down into a ravine, in a grassy area, the body was located.”

Was this a group of Rutgers students pledging for a fraternity, similar to a story earlier this year, “Cal State fraternity death of a 19-year-old pledge” stating that a California Cal State University student, “collapsed on a trail after running out of water and being denied shoes during a fraternity pledge hike in the Angeles National Forest?”

The West Milford Township Council should not kill more bears based on West Milford residents pushing for longer bear hunt season earlier in the year because the bear population is too large. Nearly 1,600 bears were slaughtered in the last four state bear hunts, which did not cause bear complaints to decrease and did not prevent the death of the hiker.

Carol Rivielle

WEST ORANGE