Thread by @JZThinAir, "Destroyed grizzly was not a candidate for relocation"And a disorganized thread about [...]

"Destroyed grizzly was not a candidate for relocation"

And a disorganized thread about individual animal welfare, ignoring scientists, policy, the public trust, media failure and how in the end someone could have and almost got hurt/killed. 1/n https://vancouversun.com/news/destroyed-grizzly-was-not-a-candidate-for-relocation

Destroyed grizzly was not a candidate for relocation

https://vancouversun.com/news/destroyed-grizzly-was-not-a-candidate-for-relocation

"Mali" was apparently a 3 year old male, weighing in at 350 lbs (that's big). The Conservation Officer Service was called about a bear on an Island April 7th. The COS attended, were told the bear had not been into non-natural attractants. 2/n

The bear was not deemed a threat (despite media reporting the COS wanted to euthanize the bear in nearly every media outlet).

That night the bear broke into a residential building and got into food. It also came out that in fact the bear got into garbage 2 days before that. 3/n

At this time the bear was still classified as a Cat 2 - relocation still considered a viable outcome. Again, the media widely reported that the Conservation Officer Service just wanted to kill the bear which was a lie.

At this point it was time to relocate the bear. 4/n

COS tried to capture the bear. Got to Island and the bear was ripping a refrigerator apart and pushed them off a snare they were trying to reset. At this point it was conditioned to human food sources and aggressive.

Now, no longer a good candidate for relocation. 5/n

Word from the top came down to relocate the bear anyways. Now, there are grizzly bear experts both inside BC gov and which are on the Grizzly Bear Foundation "science advisory committee". None of them were consulted - once.

FOI: "strong probability of future conflict." 6/n

There are all kinds of internal red flags from gov staff about this and how the entire approach is extremely unusual.

"Heads up as this is coming with direction from the ENV DM. Not a typical case."

7/n

Predictably, a few days later the bear was shot after charging someone. Fortunately, no one was injured or killed.

Again, the media reported a number of different stories, (there was a dog involved) etc, most of which is not supported by the FOI. 8/n

There are a number of references to agendas, miscommunications with the media and also a mention that gov actually works for the public which reveals a little bit about what went on behind the scenes. 9/n

What this reveals in part is the media portrayed a story that the COS wanted to kill the bear, and that the bear was in search of food because there are no salmon left and finally that the bear might have been provoked by a dog. 10/n

What the FOI reveals is that the bear was a candidate for relocation unless it started protecting human food sources and was pushing COS off aggressively, it WAS a habituated bear, it was not starving, there were no salmon around cause it was spring and it was not provoked. 11/n

This is a classic young male dispersing which found a place that didn't manage its attractants. There is no big climate/salmon story.

The learning is we should be spending more time focusing on practices that keep bears out of trouble, instead of salvaging a bad situation. 12/n

Additionally, we spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in gov time and expenses to move a habituated bear, instead of spending it on bear conservation or human-bear conflicts.

Focusing energy on these two issues would have resulted in better outcomes for way more bears. 13/n

In any case, this can be called misplaced conservation, individual animal welfare, or simply fundraising. A number of the motivations to save the bear are altruistic, while others aren't.

The people who need the information don't get it, and those who have it, ignore it. 14/n

If you want to do right by bears put your garbage away, donate your dollars & time to restore salmon, decommission roads, clean up ghost nets, & light prescribed fires.

These things ensure a brighter future for bears. Relocating an aggressive, habituated bear doesn't. /End

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