A 93-year-old Delbrook woman has been stitched up and a 190-kilogram bear has been shot after the two had an unexpected run-in Tuesday afternoon.
The adult male bear apparently let himself in through the open back door of the home on the 600-block of St. Ives Crescent and began rummaging through the fridge.
The woman noticed the fridge open and put her hand on the door to close it, not knowing what was on the other side. The startled bear put his paw over her hand. In her own shock, the woman pulled her hand away causing a gash that required stitches to close.
"We're fortunate she only received those injuries. That bear could have caused some serious or fatal injuries," said Sgt. Todd Hunter, conservation officer.
After fleeing the scene, the bear lingered in the area close to the woman's home and conservation officers caught up with it in a nearby ravine where they tranquilized it and removed it from the area. An examination of the bear's scat confirmed it had been habituated to surviving on garbage, Hunter said.
"There were Band-Aids. There were undigested fast food wrappers. It's indicative of a bear feeding on unnatural food sources - garbage," Hunter said.
Hunter said the conservation officer on the scene had no choice but to shoot the bear. "Given that it made contact with humans, it entered the dwelling house and caused injury. ... In this case, it totally fit the profile of a black bear that
we do not release. We just cannot afford for that to happen again with that bear."
Bear-related calls have skyrocketed over the last week, Hunter said, almost all of them related to bears getting into garbage.
Conservation officers prefer to reduce bear conflicts through education, Hunter said, but the sheer number of calls means the ticket book will be coming out.
"My officers have been out and issuing fines to people that have attractants on their property, particularly garbage, he said. "People can expect us to be in the North Vancouver areas as well, looking at our problem spots and enforcing."
Under the Wildlife Act, residents can be fined $230 for the first offence of leaving bear attractants in the yard. A second offence can result in the resident facing a $575-fine or a trip to court where maximum fine is $10,000 or six months in jail.
