Vigil planned for dead Incline bear
By Faun Kime, KOLO-TV
INCLINE VILLAGE – NDOW has a three-strike policy for what it calls”urban bears” that cause problems in town for people. For a bear that some residents in the area called Charlie, one recent Sunday at the Raley’s shopping center was his last offense and Charlie was euthanized.
Madonna Dunbar, Incline Village’s General Improvement District Resource Conservationist, points to some bushes. “They tranquilized the bear in the shrubbery and then the bear ran under the culvert and came out in the back of the complex where the tranquilizer took effect and the bear collapsed.”
Franny Bryan, an Incline Village resident, is organizing a vigil this Saturday night at 7pm in front of Ace Hardware. She says, “the bear doesn’t know it’s three strikes, ‘oh my gosh, I went to the garbage three times, the next time I’m going to be killed’, I mean, they don’t know that.”
Madonna Dunbar says, “it’s not necessarily a bear problem, it’s a human problem.” Primarily, it’s humans not managing their trash and a few people even feeding the bears. Signs everywhere warn against this. “A fed bear is a dead bear.”
A candlelight vigil for a BEAR? Seriously? I mean, yes, people need to stop being so stupid about wildlife. I’m pretty sure our bear, George, was put down awhile ago too. It’s a darned shame that people won’t stop feeding the critters and being careless with their garbage. But many of the same people who profess their love of the animals are part of the problem. The guy who wrote the letter wondering where all the coyotes have gone? Come spend some time in MY neighborhood. But don’t let your little dog or cat more than 6 feet away from you. It WILL be snatched.
If you see a bear in a neighborhood, don’t watch it and admire it. Yell at it, throw rocks at it (from a safe place) do SOMETHING so it knows humans and their neighborhoods are BAD places! It’s not as much fun, but you might be saving its life.
Madonna is right, it is a human problem. I wish the City of SLT would actually enforce their own codes regarding the trash receptacles in this city. I know in my neighborhood they don’t enforce the codes, otherwise the property owners would have had bear proof cans for their tenants. (it always seems to be rental properties here, that are the problem). The community service officer has never made the property owners get bear proof cans on my block, they come out and say it’s beyond their control.