Image Credit: Contributed / Ann Hahr

By Mel Rothenburger

Armchair Mayor

ROTHENBURGER: Please tell us killing the black bear is a last resort

Jun 11, 2019 | 10:45 PM

FAR BE IT FROM ME to tell conservation officers how to do their job but I’ll do it anyway.

There’s a broken trust between COs and members of the public when it comes to wildlife encroaching on urban areas. Well, if not broken, then at least bruised.

Let’s take the story of the Barnhartvale resident and the young bear that was hanging around her back yard. She tried to call conservation officers a couple of times and, eventually, they arrived and killed the bear.

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A spokesman for the COs then urged people to contact them quickly whenever they see a bear hanging around a residential area. Quicker the better in order to avoid having to kill it.

But some folks are reluctant to call conservation officers at all. They worry the COs will kill the animal if they’re told about it. Better, they figure, to make sure there’s nothing around to attract it, and hope it will move on.

There are, of course, public safety concerns. There’s more chance of being killed by lightning than by a black bear but, according to one report, since the year 1900, 61 people have been killed by black bears throughout North America. Between 1997 and 2017, six people in B.C. were killed. Almost all deaths by black bears were in remote or forested areas.

Better safe than sorry, though. Precautions should be taken — remove bird feeders promptly in spring, don’t let fruit ripen on our trees and keep garbage inside.

But maybe our conservation officers need to try a little harder to reassure the public that killing a black bear is absolutely a last resort, and that when someone calls them for help it’s not an automatic death sentence for the bear.

Mel Rothenburger is a former mayor of Kamloops and newspaper editor. He publishes the ArmchairMayor.ca opinion website, and is a director on the Thompson-Nicola Regional District board. He can be reached at mrothenburger@armchairmayor.ca.

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Editor’s Note: This opinion piece reflects the views of its author, and does not necessarily represent the views of CFJC Today or the Jim Pattison Broadcast Group.