The cruel blood sport of bear-baiting was banned across the British Empire in 1835. We in North Vancouver, however, didn’t seem to get the message.
As we reported this week, conflicts with bears and reports of them being killed have gone way up this year.
Some conflicts are inevitable. The bears’ population is likely at a high point in its natural cycle and we spent much of the last 100 years sawing down trees to make their backyard into our backyard. Though very territorial, hungry bears are notoriously uninterested in our notions of private property.
But we don’t have to continue baiting the trap that eventually kills them with needless attractants like bird feeders, poorly stored garbage and unpicked fruit.
A note for those in the District of North Vancouver enjoying your new locking garbage bins: They are bear resistant, not bear proof. This is not a licence to get sloppy on garbage day.
Conservation officers have a tough job. Ninety per cent of it is trying to educate people on how to avoid these types of encounters in the first place. But, evidently, our habits are getting worse, not better. And when the CO must pull the trigger, they tend to be vilified, even though it’s only used as a last resort when public safety is at stake and it’s too late for the bear to unlearn its habits.
If you’re preparing an indignant letter to the editor, perhaps save your invective until you’ve at least gone door-knocking in your own neighbourhood to make sure it’s spotless.
If we profess to care about bears, we have to demonstrate it with action, starting with our own backyards.
