A Conservation Officer in Quesnel is reminding residents not to shoot at bears in residential areas.
Joel Kline is referring to an incident late last month in the Red Bluff area where a resident shot and injured a 3-year old male black bear making it dangerous…
“an injured bear is a much more dangerous bear. they usually have less regard for people and any kind of tolerance for proximity for people. any kinds of injured animal can be much more dangerous than when they’re in health and can escape and get away from human activity.”
Kline says they discovered this bear by a woodpile near a house.
He says he was seriously injured and had to be put down.
Kline encourages people to call him or the RCMP if a bear is near their house.
He says shooting at them is often a bad idea…
“usually and in all other statistics where people have tried to defend themselves with firearms, if they’re not successful in killing that bear immediately the bear will become more aggressive and could cause a more serious attack on that person in retaliation.”
Kline says if people can’t get in touch with them they can use things like airhorns and bear bangers to scare the bear away.