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Four bears killed in a week

Number of dead bears approaching 2007’s total

The week of Aug. 7 through 14 proved a deadly one for Whistler’s bear population, as the B.C. Conservation Officer Service was forced to kill four in seven days.

The first incident occurred Thursday, Aug. 7 at the Peter Kiewit and Sons construction site near the Callaghan Valley. A female worker entered an office building to find a large black bear rummaging through garbage. The bear charged and swiped at the woman, leaving bruises and scratches on her before leaving.

The bear later came back to the site while Conservation Officer Drew Milne was still on location. Milne shot it after setting a trap for it.

The next incident took place on Aug. 10 in the lower Creekside area. A small male yearling of about 90 pounds and in its “cinnamon phase,” broke into a home in the neighbourhood at about 3 p.m. Milne described the bear as “very food conditioned and very habituated.”

The next incident occurred on Aug. 11 in the Whistler Cay Heights neighbourhood on Par Road. The bear in this situation was very well known to conservation officers — nicknamed Fitz, he was a 300-pound black bear about 20 years old.

“He broke into a house and RCMP were called,” Milne said. “RCMP contacted me, I was on location, really close to the location so I pretty much caught the bear red-handed.”

Fitz got into the house while a woman and child were home. He got his hands on some food and then came back a second time, when Milne was on scene. He shot the bear on the spot.

Fitz’s name had surfaced in connection with a series of home invasions in 2007 but he was also believed to have broken into other houses in the Whistler Cay Heights area this season.

The final incident took place Aug. 14 in the Bayshores area. This one, named Brio, was an adult bear that weighed more than 200 pounds, according to Milne.

Brio had broken into a house through a window on the evening of Aug. 9 in the late evening — Milne could not specify a time. The bear broke in while one person was sleeping in the house.

Brio made it into the kitchen and got his hands on some garbage and some food in the fridge.

Another person came home while the bear was on location. The person startled the bear inside the house and the bear swatted him. The subject was caught on the side with light flesh wounds but he did not require stitches or any other extensive medical treatment.

“The subjects were quite embarrassed by the situation so they did not call it in,” Milne said. “It’s like any other time, if a bear is rewarded inside a house, it will return.”

Some nights later it came back to the house. Brio came through a window again and once more fed on the contents of the fridge and the garbage. Both occupants were home at the time and called the RCMP, who later contacted the B.C. Conservation Officer Service.

When Milne arrived it was no longer on the scene, but could have been close by in some bushes. Milne kept searching for the bear until 3 a.m., when it was no longer safe for him to continue the search.

He set a trap for the bear and it was caught on the morning of Aug. 14. It was killed thereafter.

These incidents bring the total number of bears killed by the Conservation Officer Service to eight this year. That makes up more than three-quarters of the 11 bears that have been killed.

One bear was killed on Highway 99 after being hit by a vehicle, while a moving train killed another.

Whistler Secondary students were stunned in May when a small yearling bear was shot near the school. Andrew Robertson, a West Vancouver resident, faces an arraignment hearing in North Vancouver Provincial Court on Sept. 11.

A small memorial to the bear adorned the spot where he was killed shortly after that incident.

Twelve bears were killed in Whistler in 2007 and Milne is hoping that this year’s totals don’t exceed that.

“If we have help from the public, we shouldn’t break that,” he said.

That help consists of storing one’s garbage in a secure location and locking all doors and windows.

The recent spate of bear killings has some Whistler councillors worried that people in the community aren’t doing enough to guard against bears.

The RMOW’s Aug. 18 council meeting saw Bylaw 1445, which governs garbage disposal, come up for revision. Staffers recommended that the bylaw be revised to define things like bird feeders, barbecues and other such things stored outside people’s properties as “wildlife attractants.” The bylaw revisions asked that any wildlife attractants, including barbecues, be placed in wildlife-protected containers.

Proposed fines for contravening the new bylaw were to be no less than $2,000, no more than $10,000 or three months in jail.

The revisions didn’t make much sense to Councillor Nancy Wilhelm-Morden.

“This was trying to, I thought, just take a hammer to something where a hammer wasn’t required,” she told Pique . “Most barbecue owners are responsible people. Most people who have bird feeders are responsible about their bird feeders.”

The revisions were months in the making and did not come to council as a result of the bear killings. They did, however, raise questions about whether enough is being done by the municipality to guard against bear encounters.

Councillor Ralph Forsyth suggested that the current fine for feeding bears, $500, was not nearly enough.

“If you’re feeding wildlife, you should be run out of town on the rails,” he told Pique . “There is absolutely no excuse for that.”

Milne, meanwhile, said   leaving garbage outside isn’t as much of a problem as leaving doors and windows open. He warns that a bear can get into a residence if a door or window isn’t shut tightly.

“If people know their doors don’t lock unless they’re pushed closed, they need to take that extra step to secure every door,” he said. “It’ll take a second out of their lives. That one second could save a bear.”