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Two more bears destroyed on weekend

An Alpine Meadows bear is dead after breaking into or trying to break into more than 20 homes in the area. The bear was shot Monday by conservation officers after breaking into a home to feast on a homemade peach pie and other items.

An Alpine Meadows bear is dead after breaking into or trying to break into more than 20 homes in the area.

The bear was shot Monday by conservation officers after breaking into a home to feast on a homemade peach pie and other items.

Conservation officer Barry Farynuk said there was no choice but to destroy the bear after it had become an expert at getting into people’s homes.

"Over a course of two weeks we got in excess of 28 complaints where it had either entered residences or attempted to enter them," said Farynuk.

"It would slide windows open then go into refrigerators and cupboards and what not.

"It had no fear of humans and was totally habituated to this behaviour. He went from house to house. It appears that there were a lot of houses in the neighbourhood that you could go to the windows and see paw prints where he tried to open the window.

"There was the potential for somebody to get hurt."

Conservation officers are sure they got the right bear. It had been shot with rubber bullets several times by RCMP over the last few weeks and it had yellow die on its hindquarters from a beanbag projectile.

The bear exhibited unusual behaviour in that aversion techniques such as rubber bullets had little effect.

"It was shot multiple times with rubber bullets, trying to scare it away, and it was getting to the point where the rubber bullets had no effect," said Farynuk.

"It would stand there with a bag of cookies in its mouth and get shot with a rubber bullet and it wouldn’t even drop the bag."

Marcel Richoz’s home was one of the bear’s favorite stops.

While no one wants a bear to be destroyed, said Richoz, it was a dangerous situation.

"They move around so much in the kitchen that they switch the stove on so you can have a major fire because everything is on top of the stove, so this was a dangerous situation," he said.

"This (happened) in two houses, where he turned on the stove.

"And at night you will be sleeping and he is trying to get in, I mean it was unbelievable. You couldn’t sleep."

Richoz had to board up some of the windows of his home to deter the bear, who would return to the same house three times a day.

In a more disturbing incident last week a young bear was shot in the underground parking area of a building behind Nesters.

Residents of the building had left the dumpster open for sometime and a bear starting hanging out underground and feeding from the dumpster. It would often get trapped for long periods of time when the automatic door would shut.

Farynuk said officers had to destroy the bear because they could not safely tranquilize the bear. They were also concerned that it had become habituated to eating out of the dumpster.

"That death was totally avoidable," said Farynuk, frustrated that residents had not called conservation earlier or kept the lid of the dumpster closed.

"Maybe something could have been done to prevent that death.

"Sometimes we only hear about these things when the situation has got past any other kind of result and that is very frustrating."

Whistler bylaw officers are investigating the circumstances surrounding the access the bear had to the dumpster and steps will be taken to ensure the same fate does not await another bear.

Sylvia Dolson, of the Jennifer Jones Bear Foundation, doesn’t believe it was necessary to destroy the parkade bear.

"It was wrong," she said.

She is concerned about the number of bears killed this year.

"I believe five have been killed so far," said Dolson. "That is as many bears as were killed last season."

Dolson hopes to arrange a meeting with the municipality and others to investigate whether it is time for the resort to hire a full-time bear contractor whose only job would be to work on keeping bears and people out of each others’ hair.

"We need a full time bear contractor working the bears proactively," she said.

Dolson is concerned more bears will die as they struggle to find food in a poor harvest year.

"If we want to save those bears’ lives we have to try something else.

"We haven’t even got to the critical bear time in the fall when… bears feed for 20-22 hours a day and the only thing on their mind is fattening up for hibernation," she said.

Dolson has also had reports recently of people putting birdseed out to attract bears and one caller told her about recently viewing a home video in which bears were being fed on a porch.

"This goes on all over town," she said.

"I don’t know what is wrong with people. Unless there is some level of respect between people and bears then there is no way we can live together.

"Sure it is possible to turn bears into pets and try to feed them. Bears will do it to get food… but it is not the right thing for the bear."

Dolson is urging residents to be vigilant about keeping anything that attracts bears out of reach.

Check out www.bearsmart.com for ideas about how to bear-proof your home.