Well,
it’s happened again. Another bear killed without having actually committed
anything that could be called a crime.
It
happened in the town of Newmarket in Ontario, Canada. A black bear wandered
into the outskirts of town and was exploring the various yards in the area,
likely in search of food. That’s the first problem. Bears develop a taste for
human food, even in the form of trash, and it’s something they can’t quite
forget. They keep looking for more. And, of course, where better to find more
human food than over where the humans play?
It
took local authorities a few days to catch up with the bear, who seems to have
been pretty good at the game of hide-and-seek. Finally, they cornered the
animal when it climbed a tree for refuge. The first choice was to tranquilize
the animal and release back in the wild, far from the municipality. However the
police don’t carry tranks. All they have are regular guns. So they called the
local animal control agency, which had all the correct supplies. Meanwhile, the
police banged on garbage pail lids and ran the sirens on their cars in the
hopes of scaring that bear into staying put on his branch until animal control
could arrive.
But
the bear had other ideas. As soon as he started to climb down the tree, the
police determined he was an immediate threat to the people of the town and they
pulled out those regular guns and destroyed the bear.
Three
minutes later animal control arrived with all their best tranquilizers in tow.
Whenever
this happens, debate, anger and accusations rage. Police argue that their first
and highest priority is to protect the citizens, and when that bear came down
from the tree, the citizens were at risk of being attacked and hurt. Others
argue, however, that the bear had shown no intention of injuring anyone, and
the police should have left the bear be unless he actually did begin to show
signs of aggression. Still others would argue that once the bear shows those
signs, it may already be too late.
So
who’s right? Bears are beautiful and amazing animals. As someone who’s seen one
in the wild, I can tell you it’s a sight that you never forget. We certainly
can’t risk removing these stately animals forever. They’ve already gone from
ruling the continent to being limited to a few small corners of it. Let’s not
push the envelope much harder, please.
However,
it’s a stone cold given that we can’t endanger human lives either. Bears are
very defensive creatures when they feel they have a reason, and they are very
large and very powerful. If your pet cat gets defensive, you can usually shoo
her away. If you’re big enough and strong enough, you can usually even best
your pet dog. But no person on this earth can out-fight or out-run an enraged
bear.
But,
between their legendary strength, and the stories we tell one another about
bears devouring little blonde girls as punishment for taking a couple spoonfuls
of porridge, we’re determined that they are intolerable beasts and they must be
kept away at any cost. ANY cost. And we are doing a terrifying job of wiping
them off the earth. Here are some examples:
·
In a small town in Western
Canada in 2009, twelve black bears were shot all at once because they were
eating at the town dump.
·
This past week a bear was found
shot to death near a camp in Florida
·
A short time before that, Fish
and Game killed a bear in Desert Springs, Arizona
Unbelievable? Go online and search the phrase "bear shot" or "bears shot" to see for yourself. The list goes on and shockingly on. A dozen more bears killed on the coast. Another 145 in the prairies. North. South. East. West.
In fact, research data shows that in 70 percent of cases where authorities are called regarding a bear in the area, the bear ends up losing its life. That means that in only 30% of cases, are the bears tranquilized and protected.
And that’s just
simply not enough. Especially when you consider the fact that it is we who have
caused this issue in the first place. It is we who leave trash all over for the
bears to route through, convincing them that it’s something good to eat and
they need more. Indeed it is we who, occasionally, go out and very deliberately
FEED the bears! It sounds unbelievable, I know, that anyone would engage in any
act so seemingly foolish, but, believe it or not, it really does happen. That,
according to reports, is what happened with those twelve bears in Western Canada. Folks got them stuck on human
food by feeding them for entertainment. Then they suddenly got declared a
threat and were disposed of. That sounds fair, doesn’t it?
The problem is,
once a bear is food-habituated like that, he becomes awful hard to get rid of.
There have been cases of bears who have been placed way out in the wilds, only
to wander back to human civilization over and over.
But all is not
lost. Things are being done. People object loudly every time it happens. Others
provide training on how to pack away your trash and follow other bear-safe
practices when you’re in a part of the world that has a high bear population.
And reserves are firmly and strictly protected by the government.
So why are they
still falling?
Photo by: Karen Abeyasekere, U.S. Air Force
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