Last month Ron DeSantis, the state’s rightwing Republican governor, signed into law a controversial bill that allows the public to shoot and kill bears for a perceived threat to “a person, pet or dwelling”.

The legislation was drawn up by the Republican state congressman Jason Shoaf, a keen hunter according to his biography, who claimed in February that “bears high on crack” were breaking into people’s houses and “tearing them apart”.

At the time the Guardian was unable to find a single documented incident of any bear in Florida ingesting crack, and Shoaf did not return a request for clarification.

What planet do these people even live on?