EDITORIAL – Please tell us killing the black bear is a last resort
(Image: Contributed, Ann Hahr)
An editorial by Mel Rothenburger.
FAR BE IT FROM ME to tell conservation officers how to do their job but I’ll do it anyway.
There’s a broken trust between COs and members of the public when it comes to wildlife encroaching on urban areas. Well, if not broken, then at least bruised.
Let’s take the story of the Barnhartvale resident and the young bear that was hanging around her back yard. She tried to call conservation officers a couple of times and, eventually, they arrived and killed the bear.
A spokesman for the COs then urged people to contact them quickly whenever they see a bear hanging around a residential area. Quicker the better in order to avoid having to kill it.
ArmchairMayor.ca 
“Conservation Officer” has become an oxymoron.
From our salmon stocks to caribou, to wolves, to bears the last purpose being served is conservation. It is no wonder that there has been a total loss of confidence in the willingness and the ability of our governments, at every level, to manage the environment and the creatures that depend upon it.
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I’m sorry Mel, but unless there has been a major attitude adjustment at the COs office, killing bears is Not a ” last resort “. I have called their office in recent years, and ended up hanging up on them, because the first words out of the receptionists mouth were if you want to report a bear, we will kill it. No ifs, ands, or buts.
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