Anger over the plight of a playful group of docile black bears discovered prowling fields of pot is growing to a global growl, and British Columbia's Environment Minister is offering assurances that his officials are doing what they can to avoid putting the animals down.
About 15 bears of varying ages were found in late July happily roaming a sprawling, 28-hectare wooded property in the tiny southern B.C. town of Christina Lake. They had been eating human-provided dog food.
Learning the animals could face death if they can’t return to finding their own food, more than 2,300 people across Canada and as far away as China and Australia as of late Monday afternoon had signed an online petition called “Save Bears Found in Drug Bust.”
It was started by a Calgary woman who calls herself an animal lover.
“I felt in my heart and mind that the B.C. government was looking at the cheapest way out,” Doreen McCrindle, 42, said in an interview. “And that was basically trying to execute the bears.”
The fate of the creatures is now in the hands of the provincial Environment Ministry.
“We're hoping the bears will disperse on their own and revert back to seeking food on their own,” Environment Minister Barry Penner said.
But this situation is quite challenging, he added, because the feeding appears to have gone on for many years. “So we could have more than one generation of bear that has grown up associating people with food.”
And those younger bears may have never learned how to find food on their own. If the bears don't return to the wild, conservation officers might have to kill them so they don't threaten people.
“If bears associate people with a free meal ticket, they can get a little upset when that ticket is no longer redeemed,” Mr. Penner said.
But thousands of people disagree.
“Why should the bears pay with their lives? They weren't growing or selling drugs,” wrote petition signatory Michelle Bafik-Vehslage of Texas.
Glenn Ingram of Alberta signed: “Don't condemn the couple, put them to work growing medicinal marijuana and operating a black bear sanctuary.”
Ms. McCrindle insists there are better options.
“Right now, they're not a nuisance, they're not travelling off the site and I think they have a really good chance of making it with our help,” she said.
Mr. Penner said he can “understand how people feel it would be unfair for the bears to pay the price for something that people did, but unfortunately, that is typically what happens. People think in the short term that they're helping wildlife by feeding them, but really they're not, they might just be signing their death warrant.”
He said an average of 3.3 people are injured as a result of black bear encounters every year in B.C., and someone is killed by a black bear attack every two to three years.
If the bears don't move on their own, conservation officers are considering a plan to lure them into the woods using morsels of food, but if that doesn't work it's unlikely the province will try to relocate them.
“It's not as easy as it seems from watching a Walt Disney film. It's difficult, because basically every part of B.C. that has suitable habitat already has black bears and they can be territorial,” said Mr. Penner, adding that relocated bears could be attacked or run off by the resident bears.
As for putting the bears in a zoo, “it's very difficult to find space for them ... there's no shortage of bears in captivity,” he said.
According to RCMP, it's not clear whether the people accused of feeding the bears – and now facing drug charges – were using them to guard their illegal cash crop or simply liked them as pets.
They're also being investigated for violations under the provincial Wildlife Act, including feeding and leaving attractants out for dangerous wildlife.
Special to The Globe and Mail, with a report from The Canadian Press
