Sadness, anger in aftermath of bear’s killing
Woman says blame for animal’s death by state officers lies with people who ignore rules
WOODSTOCK, N.Y. >> A little after 6 a.m. Wednesday, Dory Salerno heard a gunshot.
Salerno, who lives near state-owned land on The Middle Way atop Mount Tobias in Woodstock, initially wondered whether perhaps “tom turkey” hunting season had begun. But a while later, as she drove toward Phoenicia, Salerno saw several state Department of Environmental Conservation officers and their vehicles parked along the road.
It wasn’t long before she and other neighbors in the Abbey Road area began sharing information on Facebook about the shooting by environmental conservation officers of a familiar mama bear some had begun to call “Miss Ulster County #332.” She had three young cubs.
The black bear, according to state Department of Environmental Conservation spokeswoman Wendy Rosenbach, was shot by environmental conservation officers on Wednesday morning after consultation with Woodstock police. Rosenbach said the bear “had been attempting to break into homes in the area over the past year” and that ongoing attempts to trap it were unsuccessful.
Abbe Aronson of Abbey Road said she first saw the bear on April 24.
“The three cubs were smaller than our dog and she hustled them up a nearby tree while she walked around our lawn and far field. She made it clear that she didn’t want us to approach the tree where the cubs were, but she wasn’t aggressive in any way and we watched them in delight for a few hours,” Aronson wrote in an email Thursday.
On Wednesday, the bear’s behavior changed, according to Rosenbach.
“The bear returned to a home in the area on Wednesday and was circling around the house, ignoring the newly set trap,” Rosenbach wrote via email Thursday.
After officers shot the mother bear, Rosenbach said, its three cubs were safely trapped and taken to a wildlife rehabilitation specialist “for eventual return to the wild.”
Salerno said she understands that “when bears start to break into houses the (Department of Environmental Conservation) has to take them out,” but she finds the situation frustrating and tragic.
“We do this to the bears because we are unwilling to change our patterns,” Salerno said, “... It upsets people, but people create the problem in the first place.”
Salerno called for education, particularly of weekenders and renters, who often don’t know about the dangers of feeding the bears or improperly disposing of garbage.
She said the state conservation officers who end up shooting wayward bears are often “reluctantly thrust into this role because we don’t know how to behave in the woods.”
Immediately after seeing Miss Ulster County #332 for the first time, Aronson said she followed state Department of Environmental Conservation guidelines. She put away her bird feeder, secured her garbage and was careful not to let her dog out unattended. “Basically, we were utterly charmed by these bears and felt lucky that they were roaming around in our presence,” Aronson wrote.
“While I understand that because people are careless with food or garbage or worse — feed the bears — this is a problem that our population created, not a problem that originates with the bear. But I’m super sad and sort of angry that this is the solution — killing her.”
Aronson said she was “overwhelmed” by how many of her friends shared her sadness. “These bears had quite a following (on Facebook and in the neighborhood) and it was not only our family who thought they were magical . ... We really, really miss them. I’ve shed some tears,” she wrote.
According to the state Department of Environmental Conservation, the state’s black bear population is now estimated at a minimum of 6,000 to 8,000 in areas open to hunting. About 30 to 35 percent of those bears are in the Catskill Mountain region.