Irish it's funny because some of this is similar to me.
I'm in Jersey and we actually are developing a (black) bear problem. Let me start out by saying we are the left liberalist state in the world and our rich yet liberal and anti rights and pro controlling people just love to be loved. So we have absolutely no rifle hunting in the state because, gasp, animals could die!!!! And it's dangerous!!!!!
AND WHAT WOULD YOU KNOW, the deer population explodes into the highest concentration of the deeries in the country and all the auto insurance companies leave NJ because we have so many accidents and they are traced back to deers.
Now we got the black bears coming from north down the Delaware River from the Water Gap, right into suburbia in central Jersey nice neighborhoods. and of course YOU HAVE TO BE NICE TO THOSE BEARS theyu're just hungry! BUT OH my! Liberal state senator found one in his backyard while Timmy Junior was playing lincoln logs! OH NO THE BEARS ARE A MENACE !!!!
Now people like me, I could care less what any state or animalist or whoever says. I am only concerned with protecting me and mine and particularly my dog. I have a large retention basin and some woods in the back yard and for some reason the town next to us (and the area from my back yard to about 5 miles around) has been the locale of all the local bear sightings for the last few years. Something about how they get down here and then roam in our area. I am honestly a tad bit worried, I'll be letting my cattle dog run one day and Smokey will show up looking for salmon and honey but find an Aussie canine. And at that moment, Mans Best Friend is going to be protected because I Will blow that bear to Kingdom Come if he is threatening my dog. Normally I would use 00 Buck because I trust that load with about everything, but in the event my dog is close to the bear, I would want a slug because I dont want a stray pellet fragging my puppeh and I want that slug to one shot one kill first time every time.
And as I've stated previously, I have a fairly nice shotgun that cost a decent penny in the Mossberg 930 SPX, obviously there are more expensive and "nicer", when you own a M930SPX you generally wouldn't have it any other way; and I have an Aimpoint Micro R-1 on it. With my training and practice, and combined with the M930SPX and Aimpoint, I am absolutely confident I can deploy my combat shotgun effectively in a fighting scenario and home defense scenario let alone an animal control scenario. But of course, let me add so you don't get the wrong impression: I'm not out bear hunting on the weekends or setting up fields of fire from pillboxes in the event a bear wanders into my AO, not in the least lol. I have never even shot a deer because I just don't get off on killing animals, you can do it and I haven't a problem with it it's just not a sport to me, not something I want to participate in. But if it's threatening my best friend in the whole wide world , it's game time.