Man claims self-defense in Tahoe bear killing
The bear that was shot to death last week is removed from the forest. Photo/Toogee Sielsch
By Jeff DeLong, Reno Gazette-Journal
Authorities are investigating the shooting death of a bear at Lake Tahoe last week and say they already know who did it.
The unidentified South Lake Tahoe resident said he shot the black bear Thursday night in self-defense, said Capt. Patrick Foy of the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. Foy said game wardens had previously offered the man a permit to legally shoot the bear due to damage at his property but he turned it down due to fear of retribution by animal activists.
Bear advocates dispute accounts as described by the Department of Wildlife based on an interview with the man, with some suggesting the animal may have been shot out of a tree.
We know who he is… BDLeague
There are some serious discrepancies as to the timeline of Game Warden Stevensons report as to solving this crime and how my involvement plays into the story. That will be brought out soon, I promise.
As to those that utter or type rhetorical threats to the person responsible for this: PLEASE STOP! Contrary to popular opinion, that is NOT how we with The Bear League conduct ourselves. All who know me in this town can vouch for my honesty and passion in what I believe. I as a newly authorized spokesperson for The Bear League give my word that we, the ACTUAL members, will conduct ourselves in a respectful manner as it pertains to this and any other wildlife issue in the future.
We at The Bear League have a mission to help educate folks about our forest neighbors, and also are more than willing to provide homeowners and residents with help and resources to create a place where humans and wildlife can live in peaceful coexistence by virtue of bear aversion interventions. If anyone reading this feels I’m misrepresenting The Bear League and takes issue with it, The Bear League, I would be more than glad to sit down and have a CIVIL conversation on the issue.
I can be reached at toognian@gmail.com
So this person shoots a bear in a residential area. No permit to do so, but complainng of property damage by a bear. Now that he’s been caught. He comes out with a story of property damage done by the bear and shoots a bear out of a tree. He then shot and killed the bear while it was trying to esccape from the guy with the gun. Sad…OLS
I hope a dozen bears show up and destroy all of their remaining property. Is this person a year-round resident?
ps: figuring out a way around the rgj paywall has been on my list of things to do when bored. Once I figure it out I will let everyone know how to do it.
If he chased the bear,and tweed it and shot it,Why shoot the bear ? The bear was already running out of the garage? Why did he shoot it? Why was his garage open knowing he knew about the bears in the area? Did he not know bears go into garages? There is a lot of questions to be answered,and shooting a bear is not the way if the bear was already running as it stated in the news.Something does not click in this story.
Toogee, what percentage of bears that you have released end up being recaptured in a neighborhood?
If a bear is released by a neighborhood, where is it supposed to go? It seems you are suggesting there is a bunch of available habitat and food up in the hills that is not already occupied. Where?
Feared for his life? This is a heinous crime. Why didn’t he report this incident when it happened if it was truly justified? Other than the dingbat feeding the bears up on the north shore I wonder how many people get injured by bears here in the basin every year?
To the jerk who shot this bear: If the bear had been hanging around, why the heck didn’t you simply close your garage door as common sense would dictate? Somebody needs to take his shotgun away from this dangerous buffoon.
If this was the bear in my old neighborhood (off pioneer / elks club area), yes – he was kinda douchey but I never felt threatened. He was just hungry and crafty. He did break my garage and rummage through my (empty) car on several occasions but he didn’t deserve to die. We did all all we could to prevent putting our trash outside until the morning of trash day. We were in rental with no bear boxes and tried our best to not contribute to the problem. Its not the bears fault that he is hungry and we all have buffets waiting for him. I am so sad. When we were moving my husband came eye to eye with him through the hole in the garage (he made) and he did nothing. Just scampered away. He was a nice hungry bear.
We live in the neighborhood. Have been hearing gunshots off & on since the holiday. Have seen this bear. Definitely NOT at fault. People still leave their trash out & garages & cars open with food inside. So we feed them & then we shoot them. Sad.
I don’t think that there is enough information for people to be passing judgement on this case, but in the past bad bears have been dumped from Yosemite up to Loon Lake rather that eliminating them. Those bears end up causing havoc in the Crystal Basin and Tahoe. There needs to be some thought here for the safety of humans.
Chased it. Treed it. Shot it.
People with repeated bear incidents have behavioral problems themselves. Clearly your habits attract bears. Be the human in the room and adjust to the conditions. If that fails, call the Bear League and they will help. Offering a pathetic self defense explanation is just the latest entry in this guys string of poor decision making. He managed to get EVERYTHING wrong.
I have had bears break my car windows a few times, get in my car, rumble with my trash at the curb etc etc. I had to change a few of my ways to get rid of them. Windows up, car doors locked, trash goes out at the last minute. Bears gone. Any questions ?
Moral, We’ve have bears living above our house off Pioneer for as long as I can remember. During the summer months they sleep in trees and thick brush areas. Not always do they find a nice rocky cave to crawl in but I know of a few. We see them everyday rutting up stumps for the bugs and grubs. There’s an abundance of food around. New bears often try to get in the “locked” garage even though there is no food in there. I think it’s just what they’ve been taught. Recently one tried to enter the 2 neighbors houses while they were in it. A fireplace log in noggin and they bolt. It happened here but the dog keeps them from coming in here now. They often go right to the garbage can even though it’s empty. I think that’s just another bear behavioral trait. All my neighbors meet the garbage truck on Tuesday with the trash. After a quick check of the houses and come up empty they retreat back to the woods for another day of grubbing. There’s plenty out there for them even with the drought.
it amazes me that you folks get all worked up over this poor Bear.
you don’t seem to give a hoot about the poor 22 year old fellow who was murdered by are local Police Man.
I wonder what the Bear League people would suggest to do with problem bears? Are they going to drive around with shotguns with rubber pellets and start shooting at bears in neighborhoods? Are they going to buy some good bear dogs and use both? People should see what Washington state does with problem bears and it looks like it is working and it involves both shooting and dogs used by their Fish and Game people. If the guy had the permit the bear would have been likely removed legally and once a bear starts this kind of behavior it often gets worse over time as this becomes their source of food and there is no safe area to remove them to that they can’t migrate out of. Next time people should call the county and have the bear trapped and removed by professionals to avoid all of this drama.
Just to be clear here Justice, the County and The Bear League, as suggested on another thread, do not trap bears. ONLY CA Fish and Wildlife can legally trap bears in California. And CAFW DOES NOT have a relocation program other than young rehabbed bears.
In my humble opinion, as long as highly trained police officers can justify killing a human being because they “fear for their life”, a citizen can use that claim to justify killing a wild animal. It isn’t right at all, in either case. But, if society accepts this sort of reasoning, then the bad reasoning should be accepted in all cases. We just had a bear in our yard a couple of days ago. I didn’t fear for my life.
isn’t discharging a firearm in a residential neighborhood illegal? shouldn’t he be cited and/or arrested for this alone?
I believe it is our gawd given right-and Constitutional mandate because of the 2nd Amendment-that allows us to arm bears
The bear’s death is sad, but more worrisome to me is a gun in the hands of someone who is unable to make good decisions.
Let Fish and Game (quietly) trap and relocate the bears if needed. ANYTHING to keep Ann Whacko Bryant from meddling where she has never been wanted. Yes, the bears death is sad but we weren’t there so I won’t judge.
This is very SAD! We live in Tahoe and know wildlife is part of our great place we call home.
This to is home to the bear’s. When people do not take time to do things like close the garage door.
To get bear security can or bens it’s expected that a bear might be hungry enough to approach homes.
I don’t believe a gun is warranted to scare a bear away.
I’m sick to think of a bear going up at tree as this is its instincts when frighten.
Having a person standing at the bottom of ths tree shooting into the bear tell its weakness and PAIN causes it to drop to the ground.
Death is NOT right for the bear. Even MORE disturbing what kind of person took pleasures in this killing.
Shooting it over and over is purely the humans sicknesses.
KNOWING the bear couldn’t escape what was happening to it.
I pray the court’s take all this in mind when they think on what this person deserves to happen to his life.
Hopefully all us Tahoe people share the story of how this bears death came to be.
We cannot expect to live in wildlife area’s without respect for all wildlife.
I suspect this guy will just get a slap on the hand and all will get quiet and this topic will simply disappear.
Maybe if the nut jobs stopped tampering with the traps and harassing property owners who request them this man would have had the bear trapped.
The bear was shot in the BACK, which makes the self defense argument ring very hollow. I have bears in my yard and on my porch all the time, and find clapping two pots together very effective to getting rid of them. Even in Denali, with Grizzly Bears, the most effective deterrent is NOISE, not guns
Chief Slowroller … are police…. our police…how can we listen when you no know grammer….seriously !!
I say we kill him!
Yeah!
I say we hang him, *then* we kill him!
Yeah!
I say we stomp him!
Yeah!
Then we tattoo him!
Yeah!
Then we hang him…!
YEAH!’!
And then we kill him!
YEAH!’!’!
I say we let him go.
NO!’!’!
Biker Mama — I say ya let me have him first!
(raucous laughter)
/but really it’s sad.
Chief: The bear is better respected than the dope dealing slime who is being eaten by worms now. He came up here time after time to sell drugs and laughed about it. I’m sad about the bear but nothing pleases me more than a dead dope dealer.
And MJB called it. You need to proof read your blogs first.
Sunriser has a good point. If Ann Whacko and her cast of clowns would let F & G trap them and relocate them there might be a solution. But she and her minions seem to think tampering (a crime) with legal bear traps is an option to keep her “pets” from being caught. I’d like to see her jailed.
Chief Slowroller said: “it amazes me that you folks get all worked up over this poor Bear. you don’t seem to give a hoot about the poor 22 year old fellow who was murdered by are local Police Man.”
Interesting your degree of concern over a 22-year old drug dealer yet none over Derek Penaranda, the man beaten to death at your friend Mo’s bar. Apparently the price of your loyalty is the cost of a free cocktail.
“how can we listen when you no know grammer….seriously !!”
… seriously?
It’s so sad. They just don’t stand a chance with a few people who live here. Every time I see one in a neighborhood I know their fate.
All this will be over with ,as with all the other stories we read, We will never know what happen to Sonny and the reward money ,or this bear, another one bites the dust,until another bear or person is dead ,a new story begins, THE END .AND LIFE GOES ON,.
Sarge I quit drinking in 1985.
if your drunk and violent at the Bar you might get stomped to death.
if your not careful any cop in America may shoot you to death.
that’s the way it is maybe you need to get out a little more often, so you can see the Big Picture.
as far as the Bear shooting….. if the Bear breaks into my house I don’t have a problem with shooting it.
Chief:
your/you’re.
Slow:
What you consider the “big picture” of life and the world is infinitely different from mine. However, your comments are exactly what I’ve come to expect from you.
Congratulations on being sober, but sobriety alone isn’t recovery.