FILE PHOTO
Image Credit: Shutterstock
October 17, 2019 – 8:35 a.m.
A West Kelowna company that did not lock up its trash was fined after helping to habituate six bears that needed to be destroyed.
“These bears were a major public safety concern. We have a witness who has been charged twice, we have a bear that stood on a balcony and was recycled, and one bear that pushed against a window,” said Sgt. Jeff Hanratty of the Conservation Office Service said. “They had to be destroyed for public safety.”
The company, which Hanratty would not identify, was charged with failure to manage attractants under the Wildlife Act Section 33.1 (2). Two separate animal welfare ordinances were also issued.
The aim is to prevent people from negligently securing their rubbish.
“It is important that we stop doing this. This was a preventable instance and we want people to know that it is preventable,” he said. “It’s not a pleasant part of what we have to do to stop it and change the way we deal with attractants. Bears have better noses than bloodhounds and are slaves to their biology. Your biological instruction, fat.” to put them in so they can hibernate and we lure them into the community, train them to overcome their fear, and then we destroy them.
The ministry is walking a hard line, he said, and is in the middle of a bear-attractiveness test. If someone is found displaying bear bait behavior, they will be charged and given instructions on how to protect wildlife. Efforts will stop in November when the bears set for winter and start again in spring.
“This is a human-made problem and is preventable. The best way to protect humans and bears from destruction is to secure attractants in your home or business.”
The number of bears to be killed in BC this year rose more than 50 percent from last year, and while the number of inland bears euthanized remained about the same, one dead bear is one too many.
“The number of bears we are destroying is unacceptable,” Hanratty told iNFOnews.ca earlier this month.
Between April 1 and September 30, the BC Conservation Officer Service euthanized 411 black bears in the province, a 54 percent increase over the same period in 2018 when they were forced to kill 267 bears.
While the inland numbers remained largely the same as last year, with eight bears euthanized in Kamloops and Kelowna, three in Vernon and one in Penticton, the numbers are still way too high, according to Hanratty.
Conservation officers across the province are conducting bear attraction surveys in residential, recreational and commercial areas and violators are charged. The COS can’t be stressed enough to do its part to keep the wildlife wild.
The public is encouraged to report dangerous wildlife to the Report All Poachers and Polluters hotline at 1-877-952-7277.
– This story was updated at 11:36 am on Thursday October 17, 2019 with a comment from Sgt. Jeff Hanratty.
To contact a reporter for this story, Email Kathy Michaels or call 250-718-0428 or Email the editor. You can also submit Photos, videos or news tips for the newsroom and enter to win a monthly raffle.
We appreciate your comments and opinions on our stories, but play nice. We will not censor or delete comments unless they contain unrelated statements or links, unnecessary vulgarity, false facts, spam or obviously fake profiles. If you have any concerns about the comments, please email the editor using the link above.
News from © iNFOnews, 2019
