Rivershore bear cub settles in at Northern Lights shelter on Friday. (Image credit: Northern Lights Wildlife Shelter).

By Mel Rothenburger

ARMCHAIR MAYOR

ROTHENBURGER: The indecency of Remembrance Day protests, and a happy bear update

Nov 13, 2021 | 6:55 AM

THE STORY OF THE BEAR CUBS has a happier ending than it might have been, but first let’s talk briefly about the latest outrageous act carried out by the anti-vaxxers.

Their disruption of Remembrance Day ceremonies in Kamloops, Kelowna and Cranbrook is beyond the pale.

They defaced the cenotaph in Cranbrook, set up a microphone in Kelowna to spew their paranoia, and faked a ceremony at the Riverside Park cenotaph in Kamloops. Fortunately, the official Kamloops ceremony had been moved to the original cenotaph on Battle Street with a scaled-down service due to COVID.

If vaxxers had pulled the same stunt it would be no more defensible, but they didn’t. (Unless you believe that ordinary vaccinated folks were responsible for spray painting “The real heroes are the vaccinated” on the Cranbrook war memorial.)

When the anti-vaxxers protested in front of hospitals, it was an outrageous show of disrespect for our healthcare workers. Protesting on Remembrance Day was a show of disrespect — arguably a worse one — for our veterans.

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No doubt they thought they were being clever by drawing comparisons between COVID vaccinations and war. It wasn’t clever. It was a cheap, disgusting, hurtful abuse of free speech. Yes, it got them a couple of minutes on the newscasts, but it gained them no support for their position. It convinced not one additional person that there’s any validity to what they say.

All it did was confirm they have lost all sense of decency. They did irreparable damage to any hope of rational discussion on the efficacy of vaccines or the rules that have been imposed upon us.

They should be ashamed of themselves.

GOOD NEWS FOR BEARS. I wrote in an editorial Wednesday about the plight of two orphaned bear cubs, one in Rayleigh and one in Rivershore. Residents in both communities were pleading with Conservation officers to allow the cubs to be trapped and taken into care by one of B.C.’s privately funded animal rehab centres.

At that point, their pleadings had fallen on deaf ears. But on Thursday, the Conservation Officer Service and the Hope Mountain Black Bear Committee captured the Rivershore cub and sent it up to the Northern Lights Wildlife Society. After overnighting in Prince George, the cub arrived at the society’s shelter in Smithers yesterday afternoon.

Whether the COS’ reversal was due to pressure from residents, publicity or just part of normal procedure is hard to know but, in answer to my inquiry Friday, a government public affairs officer provided this statement:

“… the cub was assessed and, while small, was determined to be in good health.

“On Nov. 11, the cub was transferred to the Northern Lights Wildlife Society in Smithers. Conservation officers had been monitoring the cub following Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development guidelines regarding the management of orphaned cubs, which includes input from wildlife biologists and the provincial wildlife veterinarian.

“It was earlier hoped that the cub would successfully den. Monitoring suggested the cub was not preparing to den and appeared smaller and weaker. The decision was made to capture the cub for rehabilitation.

“Every wildlife situation is unique and is assessed individually, taking into account ever-changing circumstances.”

Angelika Langen, the manager and co-founder of Northern Lights, told me from Smithers that the cub is “tiny” — tipping the scale at just 26.6 lb. — but should be able to put on enough weight to go into hibernation at the shelter, then be released back into the general region it came from next year.

The strategy is to get the cub to a good weight, then gradually reduce its food intake, and it will naturally go to sleep for the winter.

She said many of the cubs the society has taken into care this year have been “super small,” some under 20 pounds even though they aren’t starving. She speculated that the summer heat wave interrupted their normal feeding patterns.

The Rayleigh cub remains on its own for now, having left the neighbourhood and apparently heading for the hills. A trap will be put out today in hopes of capturing it and taking it to the shelter.

However, Langen said if it isn’t found, the cub, which has an injured leg, could still survive if it finds somewhere to den for the cold-weather months because “they recuperate amazingly well.”

Sadly, a third cub, this one from Heffley, had to be euthanized because it was so totally emaciated and badly injured that it couldn’t eat.

She said one of the issues with rescuing orphaned bear cubs is that the COS is understaffed, which is where the rehab centres come in.

All in all, the final chapter of the local bear-cub story is looking much better than it was a few days ago.

Mel Rothenburger is a former mayor of Kamloops and a retired newspaper editor. He is a regular contributor to CFJC Today, 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 Pattison Media.