AN ARMY of New Jersey hunters is preparing to shoot to kill. Their target is a black bear population that is surging out of control and encroaching on suburban homes. Pitted against them are animal rights activists determined to stop the state’s first official bear hunt for more than 30 years.

Nancy Diamandas, 42, is impatient for the shooting to begin. Last Wednesday her husband found a 300lb bear on the driveway on his return from work.

“The bear popped his teeth at him,” she said. “It’s their way of telling you, ‘Get out of my way or you’re dinner’.”

Earlier that day her daughter Cassandra, 7, spotted two bears at the side of the family home while she was with a neighbour. “They rushed indoors and got the air horn to scare them away.”

Diamandas used to carry a whistle, but the bears were unfazed. Experience has taught her that only the air horn is loud enough to scare them off.

Although she has drilled her children on the rudiments of bear safety — never run lest they think you are prey, keep rubbish indoors and do not use a bird feeder — she is afraid. At this time of year bears are stocking up on food and emerging from the woods to forage for easy pickings.

“My children have come within 15ft of them several times. Urban folk don’t understand what it’s like for us to live with these animals in our yard. They’re wild animals. We can’t have them in the same playground as our children,” said Diamandas.

The state of New Jersey has distributed 6,700 licences for the hunt, which is due to take place from December 8-13. Animal rights protesters have attracted 82,000 signatories to a petition denouncing the killing spree as immoral and Governor James McGreevey, a Democrat, is wavering in his support.

The issue has become a battle between the gun lobby and the animal rights movement, sidelining the practical question of what is to be done with New Jersey’s estimated population of 2,000-3,000 bears.

Hunters are reluctant to admit that they are savouring the shoot, although the sheer number of those who have signed up for the hunt suggests otherwise.

Scott Bach, a spokesman for the Association of New Jersey Rifle & Pistol Clubs, said: “The people doing the hunt know how to shoot and kill quickly. Shooting is a very disciplined sport and you have to be very careful. Safety always comes first.”

On his website he has posted a picture of a bear and three cubs prowling around his driveway — proof, he believes, that drastic measures are necessary.

Bears are not noted for killing humans but the state grew alarmed last year when a five-month-old baby was killed in Fallsburg, New York, not far from the New Jersey border. The little girl was sitting in a pushchair on the front porch of her house when she was dragged into the woods by a black bear. Her father managed to snatch her out of its arms, but she was already dead.

Animal rights activists argue that more American children have died of accidental gunshot wounds during hunts than have died at the hands of bears. “There has never been a death in New Jersey from a bear,” said Stuart Chaifetz, a freelance artist and vegan.

“There’s a real risk somebody could die during the hunt.” The bullets used by hunters can travel 1,000 yards if they miss their target, putting children and fellow sportsmen at risk.

Chaifetz, 36, began a protest fast last Thursday, just as the rest of the country was tucking into its Thanksgiving turkey. He intends to drink only water until the shooting starts or the killing is called off.

A member of the New Jersey Animal Rights Alliance, Chaifetz learnt the art of protest as a hunt saboteur while a student in Brighton, East Sussex, in the late 1980s. “A month ago I saw a bear in New Jersey for the first time ever and it was magic,” he said. “If this hunt goes ahead we might as well pave over the whole state.”

New Jersey is legendary for urban sprawl. It is the repository of the industry and housing on which neighbouring Manhattan depends.

As Manhattan’s commuter belt expands, new homes are being built perilously close to the wild. Diamandas’s home is part of a development bordering a state park. “We moved up here because the houses were affordable. We thought it would be a community full of children who would be safe to play outside,” she said.

Animal rights activists say there are humane alternatives to killing, such as sterilisation, but parents on the front line say they are not prepared to risk their children’s lives while they wait a generation or more for numbers to drop.

“They think we just want to kill, kill, kill, but we have a very serious problem,” said Diamandas. “The hunt is the only solution.”

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