
41 Of The Trashiest Things People Have Put In Writing
Then again, she didn't exactly follow her own advice and once sent me a note that read, 'You must be from an ugly side of the family we don't know about.' She was a mean old bat, and honestly, I'm glad she's dead. Anyway, here are 41 incredibly trashy things people put in writing:
First, there's this note from a scumbag husband:
This sign, which has got to be the trashiest form of guerilla marketing ever (don't bother using the QR code — it just goes to a realtor's ad):
And this T-R-A-S-H-Y message some sorority girls hanged outside their sorority house (Megan, call your parents):
This write-up about a woman at a Taylor Swift concert has to be read to be believed:
This listing — trying to sell a plastic bottle for a grand, saying it'll bring you back to the "Pre-Covid Pre-Woke" days — is 🙄 (and the misspelling of "original" is the least of its problems):
And this posting announcing this driver's license office in Alabama is taking the day off to celebrate Confederate Memorial Day...is something else:
They're not the only states to celebrate this in 20-freaking-25, believe it or not. Some that "celebrate":Mississippi observes it on the last Monday in April with state offices closed. South Carolina recognizes Confederate Memorial Day on May 10 with state offices closed in observance. Texas observes "Confederate Heroes Day" (heroes?!?!?!) on Jan. 19 (also Robert E. Lee's birthday). It remains an official state holiday.Yikes!
I don't mean to beat up on the South too much, but whoever made this shirt and anyone who wears it also belong on this list:
Also trashy? This note WRITTEN ON A MENSTRUAL PAD!!! (I wonder how bad a parking job it was for her to break out her pad and pen):
And this note from a cheap-ass customer will infuriate you in so many ways:
This WILD story — maybe a scam to get fired so he could keep the deposit? — could not be any trashier (I've transcribed this wall of text into an easier to read format below):
"After seeing someone else post on here about [name blurred] (IMC) I thought I'd share my awful experience with him as well to raise awareness in hopes people avoid in the future!!I did put this in the comments of the original post as well, but thought I'd give it its own post too just so it showed up if anyone searched his name in here.Anyways…..He come out to mine to quote me for a job back in February/March, seemed lovely at first and very professional. Gave him a £550 deposit, then he come out the next day using the excuse that he needed to measure up again even tho he'd already done it the previous day, and when he come out the second time he added £800 onto my original agreed upon quote.Then he started telling me what he was gunna do in my garden instead of doing the job I was asking him to do n what I was paying him to do.Then he started flirting with me and I had to remind him several times he was just here to do a job, nothing more.Then he helped himself to alcohol in my house and started drinking my alcohol in my house while discussing the work he was meant to be doing.Then he asked to borrow a fiver and use my bathroom, which I stupidly allowed him to do, and when he got finished in the bathroom n come back downstairs, he bragged about the line of coke he'd just sniffed in my bathroom that my two very young kids use and even wiped out his baggie in front of my two young kids.Wouldn't give me the fiver back that he'd obviously used to sniff his line.Then he got way way way too overly friendly with my kids as well, telling them 'I'm your mammies friend' and then teaching them how to through fkn punches n that!!When I finally got rid of him (he drive his van away from mine while still drinking the alcohol he'd taken from mine and while under the influence of coke that he'd sniffed in mine too btw), I messaged him telling him I wanted my deposit back as I was gunna go with someone else for the work after what he'd done in mine that day only to be told he couldn't return my deposit as he used my money to pay his business tax and insurance while it should of been used for materials.And when I argued that point he rang me and got really nasty with me and even threatened me as well if I didn't drop it, and he now has me blocked and never got my money back."
These two snotty girls are battling it out to see who can be the worst:
And this note — I can't emphasize this enough — makes me freaking HATE Brad:
This note was written by a monster who would rather see someone die than be inconvenienced:
This note in a work bathroom might somehow be grosser than the nastiness that inspired it:
And this note from another work bathroom paints a totally different, but equally nasty picture:
This note makes me wonder what the hell is going on at this bar:
This text from an aunt going OFF on her very pregnant niece's plan to name her baby Lilith is not cool (what is it with aunts? Looking at you, Imelda!):
If you're wondering WTF, here's some context: Lilith was the name of the first wife of Adam, who was banished from the Garden of Eden and, in some tellings, went on to become a she-demon. On the flip side, Lilith is a favorite name of feminists for her independent spirit.Whatever you think about the name, my take is that if it ain't your baby...you should stay out of the parents' naming process!
And all the money in the world couldn't buy this entitled brat class:
This silly conservative told on himself that he'd be a murderer if not for religion:
I'll just let you read what Natalia had to say:
And these gross parents are bragging to their kid about drunk driving at 8 a.m.:
This genius stamped "Trump lives here" on a depiction of the Lincoln Memorial:
This birthday cake couldn't make it at a 5-star restaurant, let's just put it that way:
And these dine and ditch punks belong on this list for sure:
This couple's messy marriage is laid out for all to see with a divorce note...written on a mattress!:
This trashy movie theater spectacle was 100% worth the price of admission:
And I think the writer in white beats the doodler in black when it comes to being the worst:
This jerk bragged online about being, well, a jerk:
This moderator for a breastfeeding Facebook group put down in writing the gross way she makes $$$:
And this mistress (or "buddy" as she prefers to be called) also put it all out there on Facebook for the world to see:
This idiot dad also put it out there, telling the world, "LOOK AT ME! I AM AS DUMB AS THEY COME!"
These people think it's funny to harass people busting their asses for minimum wage (or close to it):
And this dad not only made himself look like a jerk but a chump (because what does he think they're doing when they're not visiting him?):
This person trying to sell a bucket of day-old KFC made me throw up in my mouth a little:
This window tinting service belongs here thanks to this advertisement with these before and after photos:
And whoever's trying to sell 187 ciggy butts...which could be yours for the amazing price of just $15...needs an intervention:
These parents put WAAAAAY too much info on the internet for all to see (for clarity, the child, I believe, is the "stink," but it might also be...):
This girl at the lake will never be a debutante:
This whole situation makes you shake your head:
Wait, sorry. I mean THIS whole situation:
And lastly, the subject of this letter does NOT understand recycling (or being a functional human):

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One of NYC's oldest occupied homes is up for sale in Harlem
A piece of NYC history is on sale on East 128th Street. A pre-Civil War clapboard townhouse — widely considered to be the one of the oldest occupied single-family dwellings in Harlem — has hit the market for $3.25 million. Tucked between two larger and much newer buildings, the ornamented, light green exterior of the home appears much the same today as it did in the 1800's. 9 The townhome's whimsical facade has been lovingly maintained as the neighborhood has evolved. Max Mural Photography The interiors, on the other hand, have undergone a radical makeover. A 1981 landmark report recognized the property as one of Harlem's few surviving frame houses, calling it 'remarkably intact.' It was constructed in 1864, according to the report, back when Harlem was just a semi-rural suburb. The quaint holdout was among the first wave of fashionable row houses on East 128th Street — one of Harlem's first residential developments. The eclectic gem was built in the once-trendy French Second Empire style, defined by mansard roofs, dormer windows and ornamental flourishes. 9 The pre-Civil War home is a miraculous holdout from Harlem's first wave of residential development. Max Mural Photography 9 An illustration of rural Harlem in 1869, before the neighborhood joined New York City. NYPL 9 Ornamental scrollwork and gingerbread carpentry adorn the wide front porch. Max Mural Photography 9 Original molding, fireplaces and ceramic ceiling medallions remain, but with a fresh coat of paint. Max Mural Photography Its neighbors were demolished and replaced over the years, but this stalwart survivor stood the test of time. The four-story structure last traded hands for $3.6 million in 2015. The pricey purchase made headlines, with outlets reporting buyer Jack Stephenson's plans to host a musical nonprofit in the home. That arrangement eventually ended in a legal dispute, however, and the property is now owner occupied. 9 The entryway to the four-story home. Max Mural Photography The home, which spans 3,225 square feet of living space in addition to an unfinished basement, has been aggressively updated over the past decade. Practical improvements included all new plumbing and electrical systems, as well as modern amenities like walk-in closets, a backyard irrigation system and an open-concept kitchen. While the subzero refrigerator may not be period accurate, plenty of original details remain. Stephenson restored and painted the original fireplaces and molding, according to the listing, as well as the ceramic medallions that crown the home's 12-foot ceilings. 9 The home received new hardwood floors after 2015. Max Mural Photography 9 The open-concept kitchen. Max Mural Photography 9 The large backyard terrace, also remodeled. Max Mural Photography The exterior received a fresh coast of paint as well, listing agent Matthew Langer of Weichert Realtors told The Post, and the backyard's cedar siding was completely replaced. Despite the massive renovations, the current sale marks a $350,000 discount from the $3.6 million deal in 2015. Langer said that today's $3.25 million price tag was set by an independent appraiser. It's possible that the comparatively pricey 2015 sale reflected one buyer's enthusiasm for the property's history, rather than its market value. Still, the clapboard abode is a true standout among Harlem's for-sale single-family homes. 'There's a couple of brownstones, but this is the last wood framed house that I've seen,' Langer said.


CBS News
07-08-2025
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Pembroke Pines honors plane crash heroes, demands safety study for North Perry Airport
The Pembroke Pines City Commission honored several good Samaritans Wednesday evening for their heroic efforts in saving a family of four from a fiery plane crash last month. At the same meeting, city officials also passed a resolution urging Broward County to conduct a comprehensive safety study of North Perry Airport, a facility that has seen more than 35 crashes in the past five years. A standing ovation filled the room as residents and city leaders recognized the men who leapt into action when a small aircraft crashed into a residential neighborhood on July 13. The plane, which had been returning from the Caribbean, struck a tree in the front yard of a home near Southwest 14th Street and 68th Boulevard, just west of North Perry Airport. Among the honorees was Eddy Crispin, who helped rescue the family trapped in the wreckage. "I don't want to say like it makes me feel very heroic or anything like that — I just feel like I was put in the position where I was supposed to be at the right place at the right time, and I wish and feel like anybody would do the same thing," said Crispin. Safety concerns surrounding North Perry Airport dominated the meeting, with residents holding signs and speaking out in frustration. Megan Bishop, who tragically lost her four-year-old son Taylor in a 2021 crash involving a small aircraft, called into the meeting to share her continued concern. "Typically, fatalities ignite change, and to this date, I have not seen change come from that airport, and it reflects in the crashes that we have seen," Bishop said. The commission unanimously approved a resolution requesting Broward County conduct a thorough safety review of the airport's operations and infrastructure. "What's wrong with demanding safety and health improvements in airplane equipment and operations?" asked Commissioner Thomas Good Jr. Mayor Angelo Castillo emphasized the scale of operations at the airport and the need for accountability. "North Perry Airport is the busiest general aviation airport in the state of Florida. They have 850 — on average — 850 takeoffs and landings per day. We want them to be a good neighbor, but they have to be good, or they have to be done," said Castillo. To continue the conversation, a town hall meeting will be held on August 27 from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. at 7300 Pines Blvd. in Pembroke Pines, where the public will have the opportunity to voice their concerns and hear from local leaders about potential next steps.


National Geographic
04-08-2025
- National Geographic
There are 4,000 black bears in Florida. Is that too few, or too many?
This 195-pound male Florida black bear, named M13, was identified by biologist Joseph Guthrie on the Lake Wales Ridge in Highlands County, Florida. Photograph by Carlton Ward Jr. Once on the brink, Florida black bears have made a remarkable comeback. Now, there's a vote on hunting them. Photographs by Carlton Ward Jr. In a state with such iconic megafauna as the Florida panther and the American alligator, the shy, reclusive Florida black bear is often overlooked. Until there's trouble. In less than two weeks, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) will hold a vote to decide whether to go ahead with a black bear hunt in December. It would be the state's first black bear hunt since 2015. Proponents of the hunt say the black bear population is sturdy enough to sustain a hunt; opponents say it's not. Wildlife biologists estimate that roughly 11,000 black bears once roamed across the peninsula, traveling throughout the state's pine flatwoods, swamps and oak scrub. The bears followed the annual fruiting cycle of acorns and palmetto berries, and they travelled widely to find mates. This was pre-Columbus, pre-conquistadores, pre-missionaries and military forts. It was before the first pioneers shaped the state, before the original land barons built their winter havens along the coasts, before planned development and subdivisions and strip malls, the modern hallmarks of contemporary Florida. This was a time when Florida was still wild, its land a single vast connected parcel for animals to roam. Florida Bear Tracks Join Shelby, a black bear biologist with the Florida Fish and Wildelife Conservation Commission (FWC), and her all-female team in South Florida as they embark on a critical mission: capturing and tagging black bears. From its pre-Columbian peak, the Florida black bear population fell precipitously. Between unregulated hunting and habitat loss, bear populations dwindled. By the 1970s, the Florida black bear had bottomed out with fewer than 500 bears left in the wild. But on the heels of a worldwide focus on conservation and wildlife preservation—the first Earth Day was held in 1970; the Endangered Species Act was signed in 1973—the state of Florida turned to safeguarding its native bears. In 1974, the FWC classified the Florida black bear as a threatened species. In the decades that followed, with dedicated conservation efforts, the Florida black bear population rebounded. Today, FWC biologists estimate the black bear population in the state of Florida to be around 4,000 bears—a robust figure. By most accounts, the Florida black bear is an ecological success story. Yet the numbers are slightly misleading. Though Florida black bears have come back from the low of the 1970s, their population is spread across the state in seven geographic areas, called Bear Management Units by the FWC. While three of those units have more than one thousand bears (1,198 in the central region, 1,044 in the south and 1,060 in the east panhandle), the numbers in the other four units are significantly lower: 496 bears in the north (counted as part of a contiguous subpopulation with south Georgia, adjacent to the Okefenokee Swamp; the total subpopulation has around 1,200 bears), 120 in the west panhandle, 98 in south central and just 30 bears in the Big Bend area. Opponents to the proposed bear hunt worry that it could decimate populations in some of the units with lower numbers of bears. The FWC says it has restricted the potential hunt to the four Bear Management Units which 'could be hunted in a sustainable manner without decreasing the bear population,' according to information released by the commission. The hunt is intended to target male bears—most female bears should be in their dens by December—and the commission says the 187 permits available for the proposed 2025 hunt is equal to the number of female bears that could be removed without reducing the population of the individual Bear Management Units. During the 10 years since Florida's last bear hunt in 2015, the state's black bear population has grown modestly. Meanwhile, Florida's human population has been booming, with 3 million more people living in the state since the last hunt. The growth puts tremendous pressure on bears and increases the probability of conflict with suburbanites and drivers. The photo above shows a development east of Naples, where new construction is consuming and fragmenting bear habitats. A Florida black bear crosses safely beneath Interstate 75 from Picayune Strand State Forest to Florida Panther National Wildlife Refuge. There are more than 30 wildlife underpass structures crossing under the long stretch of I-75 called Alligator Alley between Naples and Fort Lauderdale. These underpasses, combined with fencing parallel to the highway that directs wildlife to the crossings, prevent animals from being stuck by cars. Part of what scientists know today about the Florida black bear's home range comes from a 2009 collaring of a young male bear, known in the literature as M34. The bear was collared by a team from the University of Kentucky, including wildlife biologist Joe Guthrie, then a graduate student. It was a particularly fortuitous collaring. Female Florida black bears have a home range of roughly 15 square miles. They stick close to their food source of fruit, nuts, berries, termites and ants (with an occasional possum or armadillo in the mix). This helps them stay healthy as they prepare to den down in the autumn and well-fed when they are nursing in the spring. Florida black bears give birth to two or three cubs (in rare cases, four) every other year. The cubs spend the first 18 months of their lives near their mother before spreading out. Female offspring tend to stay close to her as they grow, often inheriting part of her home range. A Florida black bear crosses under a barbed-wire fence from Big Cypress National Preserve onto an adjacent cattle ranch, which bears and other wildlife consider to be one connected habitat. Big Cypress National Preserve is an integral part of 4 million acres of contiguous public land in and around Everglades National Park (an area twice the size of Yellowstone National Park). Whether this large block of public land, and the bears of the Big Cypress population, stay connected to the rest of Florida and the U.S. to the north, depends on whether there is enough new land protection in the Florida Wildlife Corridor. A suburban development east of La Belle, right in the Florida Wildlife Corridor. This development was abandoned decades ago, allowing forest to return between the roadways. Male Florida black bears, on the other hand, have a much wider home range—anywhere from 25 to 100 square miles, with the average around 60 square miles, enough to breed with several female black bears. Male cubs leave their mother's home range as they enter the three- to four-year mark and approach sexual maturity. They seek new terrain far away from their home range where there's too much overlap of genetic material with the available females. These young males set off on a perilous journey over an unknown landscape, facing dangers from roadways, suburban neighborhoods and older, stronger male bears. Luckily for Guthrie and his team, they collared two-and-a-half-year-old M34 at the beginning of his journey. The collar stayed on the young male bear for nine months, from October to July, sending highly accurate GPS locations every hour as the bear journeyed more than 500 miles across the state. Over the course of those months, scientists were able to collect substantive evidence showing how large mammals move through the complicated, high-risk landscape of south-central Florida, where conservationists had spent decades fighting for a connected, protected network of land. (The quest to protect Florida's wildlife corridor) 'Along comes this bear making this outrageous, surprising dispersal and showing how connected it all was,' says Guthrie, now the predator-prey program director at the Archbold Biological Station, an independently operated field research station near Lake Okeechobee. 'Here was a black bear that answered a lot of questions and filled in a lot of our theories. The M34 data revealed the connectedness of the landscape in a way that made sense. It was a great, great discovery for our research and ultimately for conservation.' Guthrie and his team, along with other advocates for Florida's wild places, used the M34 data to join forces. Their mission: to build a living landscape corridor across Florida, uniting individual conservation lands into an uninterrupted stretch of wilderness. For the Florida black bear, it would mean connecting the pockets of bear populations across the state, ultimately preventing isolation, inbreeding and decline. Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission biologists Mike Orlando, left, and Alyssa Simmons, right, weigh a dead Florida black bear at Rock Springs Run Wildlife Management Area in Lake County on the first day of the 2015 Florida bear hunt. Can hunting and conservation co-exist? What began as a grassroots idea to protect a pathway of undeveloped lands in a single, connected corridor across the state became a fully fledged, state-supported project in 2021 with the passing of the Florida Wildlife Corridor Act. Today, the Florida Wildlife Corridor comprises nearly 18 million acres of contiguous wilderness—10 million of those areas are protected while nearly eight million are connected but not yet protected. The corridor is used by all seven subpopulations of the Florida black bear, and each of the FWC's Bear Management Units is in or touching the corridor. It's also key habitat for other imperiled Florida wildlife like panthers, gopher tortoises, burrowing owls and swallow-tail kites. 'If we want to maintain Florida's natural ecosystems, including its wildlife, we can't do that with postage-stamp-sized pieces of land. It cannot—it will not—work. We need connectivity, a wildlife corridor across the state where animals can move through the landscape. Otherwise, we're going to lose all of the things that are representative of Florida,' says Greg Knecht, executive director of The Nature Conservancy in Florida. The Wildlife Corridor is also a favorite place for Florida sportsmen like Travis Thompson. Thompson is a life-long hunter and executive director of the conservation-minded nonprofit All Florida, which seeks to bring hunters and conservationists into the same room when making environmental policy. Thompson, like many sportsmen in Florida, believes strongly that both groups share the same environmental goals. (Hard numbers reveal the scale of America's trophy-hunting habit) Thompson grew up in Florida, where he spent his summers snook fishing and his winters at turkey camps. 'My Saturday mornings were in a dove field or a turkey blind or at a boat ramp, catching fish,' Thompson says. His desire to hunt and his wish to protect wild places are tightly bound. 'Everything I do is through the lens of conservation,' he says. Today, Thompson is mostly a duck hunter. 'I love ducks more than anyone you'll find. I don't want to shoot all the ducks in the world. I want to make sure there are plenty of ducks so I can shoot a bunch every year.' This perspective, he says, is the same one a lot of hunters bring to the environment: they want to protect it to continue to do what they love. Though Thompson isn't a bear hunter—'I don't have any interest in hunting a bear,' he says— he believes science should guide wildlife management decisions. And the scientists at the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, who make the decisions about hunting Florida black bears: 'They're the best bear scientists I know,' Thompson says. A Florida black bear walking through a swamp of 500-year-old cypress tree on Bergeron's Green Glades West cattle ranch, adjacent to Big Cypress National Preserve and the Seminole Tribe of Florida's Big Cypress Reservation. The swamps fill with water during the summer and autumn rainy season. The bears in the Big Cypress subpopulation are the southernmost in the United States. Without the Florida Wildlife Corridor, bears in Big Cypress subpopulation and other wildlife like the Florida panther could be cut off from the rest of the state and country. Too few bears vs. too many The FWC is one of the largest fish and wildlife conservation agencies in the nation, with a significant portion of its $600 million budget dedicated to wildlife research, habitat assessment and data collection and analysis. 'We're here to do good science,' says George Warthen, the agency's chief conservation officer. Like Thompson, Warthen grew up in Florida and is an avid hunter. Hunting has been an important part of his conservation journey. 'What draws me to hunting is my connection to nature,' he says. 'I can't imagine leaving Florida because of my connection to the land.' The pull toward a 3 a.m. wakeup and early morning stints alone in the woods is not that different from the impulse that draws wildlife photographers, he says. (Bears at Disney World? Get used to it, experts say.) Like many, Warthen advocates for allowing the data to guide decisions around Florida black bear protection—including possibly allowing the first black bear hunt in the state in a decade. 'As wildlife managers, we want to step in before an animal overpopulates,' Warthen says. 'When any wildlife species starts to reach the upper limits of what a habitat will support, overall health of the population can begin to decline because of increased stress on individuals competing for resources. This can lead to disease outbreaks, lower reproductive rates in females and increased infanticide by male bears. The combination of these factors can lead to declines in the population which are much harder for wildlife managers to predict, and therefore manage, for long-term sustainability of the population.' Among the 40 states in the United States with resident black bear populations, Florida is one of only six that does not allow a regulated hunt. The other five cite low bear population numbers for why they prohibit bear hunts within their borders. Connecticut has roughly 1,200 bears; Texas, Mississippi, Alabama and Ohio have less than 250 each. The eye of a young Florida bear cub, who was identified with its siblings by biologists from the Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission during a den study. The cubs' location was known because their mother had been given a GPS collar the previous summer. Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission biologists Darcy Doran-Myers and Shelby Shiver carry Florida black bear cubs a short distance from their den in Florida Panther National Wildlife Refuge to a clearing where the had space to study and record measurements for the cubs. Warthen is careful to make a distinction between previous eras in the state's history, where unregulated hunting was detrimental to wildlife populations, and this modern one. 'Not a single game species has gone extinct—or come even close—in North America in the modern era of regulated hunting,' he says. 'Instead, if we look at deer and turkey as prime examples, we see where the population exploded as money from hunters went toward restoration.' He believes the story of the Florida black bear can be a similar one: The more groups that want to protect the bear—from hunters to scientists to conservationists—the more people who will ultimately be in the bear's camp. The vote on whether to move forward with the bear hunt is scheduled to take place at the FWC's next quarterly meeting, held August 13 and 14 in Havana, Florida. The commission's seven commissioners will vote on the issue. If it goes forward, the hunt will be held for three weeks in December, between December 6 and December 28, and span four Bear Management Units: central, east panhandle, north and south (with the exception of Big Cypress National Preserve, where bear hunting will not be permitted). Hunters will be allowed to hunt within the Florida Wildlife Corridor, which is composed of a mosaic of public and private lands, including many of the state's wildlife management areas. The hunting permits would be granted by a lottery process. (Revered and feared: the history of Florida's elusive panthers) The FWC has provided opportunities for the public to voice opinions on the hunt both in-person and on-line, and groups for and against the hunt plan to pack the room the during the commissioners' meeting. The anti-hunt group Bear Defenders has called for statewide protests on Saturday, August 9, with locations in 13 cities across Florida. Many Floridians are passionately opposed to the hunt. 'It's going to be a disaster,' says Kate MacFall, Florida State Director of Humane World for Animals, formerly the Humane Society. MacFall remembers Florida's 2015 bear hunt, when 304 bears were killed in the first two days of the hunt—some of them cubs, some of them lactating mothers. FWC officials were forced to end the hunt early. MacFall calls it a fiasco. 'People were appalled. It made Florida look bad. The commission seems to have forgotten that, and we're headed down the wrong path again.' MacFall is particularly alarmed by the potential use of dogs, archery and baiting in upcoming bear hunts. 'We are asking the FWC to remove the worst kinds of cruelty,' she says. 'While they are moving ahead with the hunt, we do have an opportunity to make it less cruel.' Florida is set to decide whether to reinstate a limited hunt for black bears, a move that has drawn both supporters and critics. Where bears belong The Florida Wildlife Federation has been involved with minimizing the potential harm and risks of a bear hunt, including baiting and artificial feed stations. The Federation's president and CEO, Sarah Gledhill, says that the group's focus is on prioritizing the coexistence between bears and humans through education and better waste management. Its biggest hope for the preservation of the Florida black bear? 'Conserving large tracts of land, building wildlife crossings and restoring habitat that has been degraded over time,' Gledhill says. Conservation biologists sometimes ask themselves why they do what they do. Why they go through all the heartache and expense and hardship of saving a species—any species. Guthrie, who collared M34 as a graduate student and has since committed his career to protecting Florida bears, puts it simply: because they belong in this world. 'We get to share this planet with these fascinating, mysterious animals,' he says. 'No matter how closely we study them, we will never know what their lives are. But I'm still compelled by the mystery of their existence, how they live right under our noses and yet remain these enigmas, able to survive a thing like hibernation and raise their young for the next generation. I think some of us should dedicate our time and energy to making sure they last.'