Jason Shoaf, a Republican member of the Florida House of Representatives, has proposed House Bill 87, which would remove penalties for killing a bear without authorisation.

He told a committee examining the bill that he was “talking about the ones that are on crack, and they break your door down, and they’re standing in your living room growling and tearing your house apart”, The Guardian reports.

He added: “When you run into one of these crack bears, you should be able to shoot it, period. And you shouldn’t have to pause or be afraid you’re gonna get arrested or harassed or pay fines. That’s just crazy.”

Despite there being no record of a bear in Florida having ingested crack cocaine, let alone invading homes while high, the bill was nodded through to a full debate.

Animal rights campaigners have pointed out there is already a general right of self-defence that would allow a person to kill a so-called crack bear entering their home.

The bill could have been inspired by the Hollywood movie Cocaine Bear, which featured the eponymous bear on a long, drug-addled violent spree. The movie claimed to be inspired by a real-life incident in which a bear ingested cocaine and quickly died.