NDOW denies relocating bears to hunting areas
By Terri Hendry, KRNV-TV
Lake Tahoe Basin bears are at the center of a unique controversy. Some animal advocates are claiming the Nevada Division of Wildlife is putting relocated nuisance bears into hunting areas. It is a claim NDOW flatly and firmly denies.
Bear advocate Carolyn Stark said, “A majority of the bears are relocated out of the Tahoe basin and into the high desert hunting areas.” She added, “It is to stalk up the bear hunt. They hoping by moving these bears to hunting areas. some will stay in the area.”
NDOW spokesman Chris Healy said, “We haven’t done that. I can continue to say we don’t do it, we don’t do it, we don’t do it. Then I could follow that up with a we don’t do it. That is not how this works.”
In the ten years prior to the NV Bear Hunt staring in 2011 one bear from the Tahoe Alpine environment had been relocated to the ranges east of the sierra’s in Nevada. Since the bear hunt started 27 bears, NDoW’s own statistics, have been relocated to the most popular and impacted bear hunt units. Carl Lackey, in an interview with ABC 7 in the Bay Area, flat out lied when asked if any Tahoe Alpine Environment relocated bears had been killed in any of the past six years of the bear hunt by saying none had been killed. According to NDoW’s own records four relocated Tahoe Alpine Environment bears have been killed in the hunt since 2011.