Nevada officials kill Kingsbury Grade bear

For the second time this week the Nevada Department of Wildlife euthanized a black bear in Lake Tahoe.

A female bear, about 18 months old, was trapped between Thursday night and Friday morning in the Kingsbury Grade area.

The trap was set earlier this week after a bear in the area, fitting the description of the bear caught Aug. 28, had entered two houses in search of food. The bear was euthanized as a threat to public safety.

It was the fifth bear euthanized this year as a threat to public safety. A 9-year-old male bear was captured and euthanized this past Aug. 25  in Incline Village as a threat to public safety.

“We hate having to do this, but a bear entering a house is a dangerous bear and the Nevada Department of Wildlife is obligated to manage the situation,” NDOW spokesman Chris Healy said in a press release. “We have an obligation to public safety that we do not take lightly. People have called and asked us to move the bear, but we cannot move a bear that we know to be dangerous, that just would not be prudent.”

Healy advises that people in “bear country” have a special obligation to not attract bears to their property.  “Garbage that is carelessly managed and left available to bears is what creates situations like today. If you want to keep bears alive and wild, then you need to not attract them to your property where they become habituated to human sources of food.”

— Lake Tahoe News staff report