DEATH VERSUS REHAB

From April 1 to Aug. 8, B.C. Conservation officers destroyed 22 black bear ‘cubs of the year’ compared with 13 cubs taken to rehabilitation

Provincial conservation officers so far this year have destroyed 70 per cent more small black bear cubs than they have taken to rehabilitation centres for release back to the wild, Ministry of Environment statistics reveal.

The statistics, compiled at the request of Postmedia News, show that from April 1 to August 8 conservation officers destroyed 22 black bear “cubs of the year” compared with 13 cubs taken to rehab facilities. The ministry notes that an unspecified number of cubs were destroyed due to being hit by vehicles or euthanized because they were injured, sick, or emaciated.

Deputy chief Chris Doyle, of the Conservation Officer Service, said of the kill numbers “we’d like to see that number at zero, but we have to make some tough decisions.”

He said the extent and frequency of cub interactions with people are factors in any decision to kill that animal. In some cases, officers consult with a biologist or vet, or decide themselves that a sick or injured cub is too far gone for rehab, he added.

Doyle emphasized the importance of people keeping food away from bears to avoid them being killed as nuisance animals. “We’re striving to keep all those bears wild,” he said.

Section 79 of the Wildlife Act reads, in part: “An officer may kill an animal, other than a domestic animal, that is at large and is likely to harm persons, property, wildlife or wildlife habitat.”

Lesley Fox, executive director of The Fur-Bearers, said it is difficult to believe that tiny cubs only a few months old pose threats to anyone. She also said that rehabbers have found that bears under six months old are excellent candidates for rehabilitation and release back to the wild.

“In the case of vehicle collisions or so-called sick or emaciated animals, those animals should be evaluated by a wildlife rehabber,” she added. “It’s not within the mandate of the (Conservation Officer Service) to be killing animals that are not a clear threat to public safety or property.”

The Fur-Bearers is headed to B.C. Supreme Court to challenge the way the provincial government kills wildlife, especially young black bear cubs, that come into contact with humans.

The organization is seeking a judicial review of the decision by conservation officer Micah Kneller to kill an orphaned black bear cub about the size of a domestic cat on May 6, 2016, near Dawson Creek.

The Northern Lights Wildlife Society in Smithers had agreed to take the cub.

In a letter received by The Fur-Bearers on Jan. 13, 2017, Aaron Canuel, deputy chief conservation officer, argued that Section 86 of the Wildlife Act exempts conservation officers from restrictions against killing wild animals under Section 79 “when officers are engaged in performing their duties,” court documents read.

The Fur-Bearers argue that “an officer who acts without lawful authority is not engaged in his or her duties, but rather is acting outside of his/her duties.”

The issue gained international notoriety in July 2015 when an adult female bear was shot after breaking into a freezer and grabbing garbage from inside a home near Port Hardy.

Conservation officer Bryce Casavant was ordered to shoot the sow’s two eight-week-old cubs on the assumption they were conditioned to human garbage and not candidates for rehabilitation.

Casavant refused, believing there was no evidence to support their death sentence, and took them to the non-profit North Island Wildlife Recovery Centre for rehabilitation. He was suspended from his job and, following a public outcry, transferred from the Ministry of Environment to the Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations to serve as a natural resource officer.

The cubs — Athena and Jordan — were released into the wild in June 2016, and were thought to have successfully hibernated on their own. Julie Mackey, wildlife manager at the recovery centre, said that as far as she knows the two cubs were successfully rehabilitated and that today “they’re just wild bears.”

— NICK QUENVILLE/OMNIFILM ENTERTAINMENT FILES An orphan black bear cub named Wasabi visits the vet in Smithers last year as part of his care by the Northern Lights Wildlife Shelter.

These two bear cubs were rescued from Port Hardy in July of 2015 and sent to be rehabbed at the North Island Wildlife Recovery Centre for rehabilitation. The cubs’ mother was put down after she had repeatedly broken into a freezer full of meat inside a residential property.