Bear Matters BC

Jun 14 2007

A North Shore bear activist is calling on the provincial government to revise their kill policy for orphaned cubs and direct a portion of a promised $400,000 to bear rehabilitation facilities.

Barbara Murray said there have been several instances where cubs as young as a few months old have been shot and killed after their mother has died as a result of humans, despite the fact that there are four bear rehabilitation facilities in B.C. that could care for the animals until they are old enough to survive in the wild.

“When the mother gets killed, especially by human interference, it’s only ethical and right that we try to save these cubs and give them a chance,” she said. “We need the government to talk to the rehab-ers and wildlife authorities and come up with a humane system.”

With spring bear hunting season wrapping up June 15, this is an important time to bring the issue to the forefront, she said. Because grizzly bears and black bears are not endangered species, animal authorities are instructed to leave orphaned cubs alone or, sometimes, shoot them.

The latter was the case when a man witnessed an accident at Manning Park this April where a mother bear had been killed by a semi-truck leaving two six-pound cubs behind. He attempted to put the cubs in his truck to take them to a rehab clinic, but authorities on hand demanded he turn them over. He compromised by bringing them to a ranger office where he was told they would consider options for rehabilitation. When he phoned to follow up the next day, he learned they had been shot.

“It wakes me up to the fact that we aren’t quite there yet,” Murray said.

But progress has been made. In 2004, Murray went on a three-week campaign to raise awareness about the euthanizing of bear cubs. That led to the government allowing four of about 20 cubs known to be orphaned to be sent to rehab clinics as an experiment. After that, a reprieve was called to allow cubs found in B.C.’s southern region to be sent to rehab clinics. According to Lance Sundquist, manager for conservation officer service in the south coast region, the policy for his region is to transfer cubs to a rehabilitation facility unless the facilities are full or if the animal is too badly harmed and must be euthanized. However, that isn’t the case for all of B.C. “In some of those (regions) people who are looking at (whether or not to euthanize cubs) are looking at a number of different factors. Those could be the health of the animal or ability to monitor it after release,” he said.

In 2005, Premier Gordon Campbell made an election promise to allocate $400,000 to help bear cubs. Murray hopes some of this money will go towards expanding and improving rehab centres to accommodate more cubs. In a letter sent to B.C. Environment Minister Barry Penner, she asked for a complete end to the “indiscriminate and unnecessary killing” of orphaned cubs. She’s optimistic that she will see results. For more info visit www.bearsmatter.com.