Editor:
I am writing in response to a letter by Kay Titford in which she laments the removal of two bear cubs from her property.
She parrots the mantra that if we would just pick up our fruit all will be well — bears won’t come into our city and everyone will be happy. Unfortunately, this is the real world and the solution is not that simple.
Mr. Gary Shelton is a respected authority on bear behaviour, has written several books relating to bear attacks, and conducts seminars on bear awareness for people who work in the woods. He says that over the years hunting pressure on bears has declined and bears are losing their innate fear of humans. Furthermore, he says, any bear that is not afraid of you is a dangerous bear.
With a sense of smell more than 2,000 times as acute as humans, the luscious smells emanating from restaurants suffice to entice bears into the city.
Picking all of your apples sounds simple, but how are you going to get every apple on every small branch of a 15-foot tree? Of course, Mr. Bear has no qualms about tearing it down.
A bear clawed a hole in the door of my son’s garage door in an attempt to get the dog food that was stored there. The bear also decimated his apple tree.
My daughter was riding horseback in the McLeese Lake area when a bear came out of his den and pursued her.
She feels extremely fortunate she was able to get to an area in which there were houses and dogs, and the bear retreated.
Black bear population in B.C. is estimated to be well over 100,000.
It is great to have them in the wild, but when they take up residence in populated areas and are no longer afraid of us they are dangerous and should be eliminated.
Margie Kaufman
Williams Lake