Three black bear cubs stick close to their mother in the B.C. woods. When cubs are orphaned or separated from their mothers, their prospects for finding food can be grim.Ian McAllister/Pacific Wild
In early January, Eric Boyum went out searching for an orphan cub on the east coast of Vancouver Island. A seasoned bear guide, Mr. Boyum hiked the recreational lands adjacent to a fast-moving highway, searching for scat or prints and peering into potential den sites. At this time of year, there is little for a bear to eat, except where people have been illegally dumping refuse and animal carcasses by the recreational access roads, so he poked through garbage too.
He stopped mountain bikers, hikers and campers to ask whether they had spotted a black bear cub that had been seen in the area. Every answer was “no,” but once he explained the cub’s plight – if it is still alive, it is starving and unlikely to survive the winter on its own – a new question arose: What should they do if they spot a cub?
It’s a tricky question. By law the correct answer is call the B.C. Conservation Officer Service (COS). But locals worry that too often conservation officers revert to killing a bear, rather than examining other options.
“It’s a difficult situation,” Mr. Boyum said as he scanned the side of the highway where the COS had killed a different orphan cub on Dec. 21. “If we find it, I want to keep it safe and find someone who would help it.”
Bear guide Eric Boyum surveys an unsanctioned dump site near Highway 19 on Jan. 6, looking for the possible sibling of a cub found on Dec. 21.Justine Hunter/The Globe and Mail
Days before Christmas, island motorists sought help for a skinny, orphaned black bear cub at the side of Highway 19 near the oceanside community of Deep Bay.
Kim Cooper was one of the drivers who stopped to help. With traffic whipping by, she parked on the verge, got out of her vehicle and tried to cajole the animal off the roadway.
It seemed reluctant to leave, sitting by Ms. Cooper’s vehicle and looking at her.
“The bear wanted to play,” she said.
Eventually other good Samaritans joined her, and together they formed a human chain and forced the bear to amble off toward the bush while they waited for COS to arrive. When Ms. Cooper left, she believed they had saved the cub’s life.
However, the conservation officers who arrived soon after say they saw something else: the cub lying in the ditch, injured and barely able to lift its head. The officers shot the animal dead.
The shooting capped a year that saw the highest number on record of bears killed by the COS. The death toll has sparked calls for reform from advocates who say too many bears are being needlessly killed by an agency that lacks independent oversight.
Ken Macquisten, a seasoned wildlife veterinarian who has helped rehabilitate hundreds of bear cubs in the Fraser Valley, believes most orphan cubs can be saved.
“The question is, do the conservation officers have the training or expertise necessary to make that judgment about whether a bear is savable? I think the answer is no,” he said.
Dr. Macquisten reviewed Ms. Cooper’s video of her interaction with the cub, and believes the underweight yearling should have been evaluated by a licensed veterinarian.
COS Inspector Drew Milne oversees the west coast region for the province. He said the two officers who checked on the cub did the correct, and humane, thing. Based on the responding officers’ account, the bear was emaciated, weak and injured. “That animal was suffering. It was not a candidate for rehabilitation.”
Insp. Milne said conservation officers have both the authority and the training to make such a decision without a veterinary assessment. “It was incredibly obvious, and any officer faced with the same scenario would have done the same thing.”
Karen McAllister, executive director of the conservation organization Pacific Wild, has asked the B.C. Auditor-General’s office to audit the COS to assess whether its policies and procedures are up to the task of managing wildlife.
The government hasn’t yet tallied the number of bears shot in November and December, but in the first 10 months of 2023, the COS put down a record 561 black bears.
“We need to be looking for non-lethal ways of dealing with managing wildlife that come into our communities,” she said. Pacific Wild has called for independent oversight of the COS, and wants officers to wear body cameras for accountability.
That position is supported by a 2021 report from the University of Victoria’s Environmental Law Centre. “BC Conservation Officers have extraordinary powers: they carry lethal arms, wear a uniform and carry a badge – just like police officers. ... Yet there is no independent oversight mechanism whereby the public can file a complaint about the conduct of a Conservation Officer,” the report says.
Ellie Lamb has been a bear guide around Bella Coola for more than 25 years, often in close quarters with wild grizzlies and black bears. She’s brought in a dozen cubs for rehabilitation, and based on her extensive interactions, she believes the bear Ms. Cooper encountered was on the highway seeking help.
“What I saw in that video was a very, very sad cub that was just reaching out. And as a result of her reaching out, she got seen by the wrong people and unfortunately was killed.”
Bear guide Ellie Lamb, shown on a tour in the Bella Coola Valley, believes the cub killed on Dec. 21 could have been helped.Courtesy of Ellie Lamb
The high number of bears killed in 2023 reflects an increase in the number of calls from the public to the COS. Those calls peaked in August, with more than 5,900 reports concerning black bears. That month, 151 black bears were destroyed by COS, while 21 bears were dealt with using non-lethal means such as relocation or rehabilitation.
Chris Darimont, science director of the Raincoast Foundation and a professor of conservation science at the University of Victoria, said the high number of human-bear conflicts last year may have been driven by the extensive drought and wildfires, which have reduced food supplies. “Bears tend to take more chances when they are hungry, and sometimes that leads to conflict with humans.”
As a consequence, the province’s three facilities where bears can be rehabilitated are bursting at the seams, he said. “Their budget and capacity can in no way keep pace with the escalated levels of apparent conflict out there. Unfortunately, the most expedient thing to do is to kill a cub than to take it to a rehab centre.”
B.C. Environment Minister George Heyman declined to be interviewed. In a written statement, he defended the COS structure, saying officers have the “knowledge, training and compassion to make decisions in the field, however difficult.”
The debate about how COS operates was launched into the spotlight in 2015, when the agency fired an officer for refusing an order to kill two orphan cubs. Bryce Casavant insisted he was following policy, which dictated that all orphaned cubs had to be delivered to a vet for a medical and behavioural assessment. That policy was later rescinded, giving officers discretion to destroy yearling bears.
The two bears Mr. Casavant saved were rehabilitated and successfully released into the wild, and the case sparked a public debate about COS practices related to predators. Almost a decade later, talk of reform is still just that: talk.
In May, 2022, a legislative committee recommended the creation of a single, independent, civilian-led oversight agency responsible for overseeing all police and safety personnel in the province – which includes the COS. Mr. Heyman said in the statement that he supports such a change, but that it is in the hands of the Solicitor-General. “The ministry and the Conservation Officer Service support the implementation of third-party oversight as a tool to further improve transparency and public trust,” Mr. Heyman said.
In the meantime, the COS has started sending serious allegations of misconduct to an outside, independent law firm for review.
Mr. Boyum continues his search for the bear-cub sibling near Deep Bay.Justine Hunter/The Globe and Mail
Time was running out for the cub Mr. Boyum was searching for, believed to be the sibling of the cub that was shot on Dec. 21. (Their mother’s fate is unknown.)
His final search of the day was in Rosewall Creek Provincial Park, not far from where the cub was last sighted two weeks earlier. If a bear cub had any hope of finding food and shelter to survive the winter, it would be here, in this pocket of old-growth forests where there are still fish in the creek.
Along a trail, Mr. Boyum met solo hiker Olivia Goldman, who assured him she was already on the lookout for the cub, which she had heard about through social media. She commiserated with Mr. Boyum about the fate of the one that was shot. “I think that was so unnecessary,” she said. “Why couldn’t they try to save it?”
Mr. Boyum accepts there is now little chance that the cub he sought is still alive. He will turn his energy to the campaign for reform. “If there are no more sightings, I will have to focus on other things.”
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