Public witnesses to a bear shooting by Sunshine Coast RCMP Monday night in Gibsons are questioning whether the situation was handled properly.
Police were called to the Sunnycrest Mall after receiving a complaint of a large adult bear rummaging in the garbage bins located by the loading dock area. Sgt. Stuart Falebrinza said the conservation service was called, but was not able to attend. "Conservation officers had received previous calls about this particular bear that was habituated in the area," Falebrinza said. "The large bear had no fear of people and frequented the mall to raid the garbage bins. Once bears find easy access to food, management options, besides destruction of the bear, are limited." He said this bear was reported to have been seen in the area in the last two weeks.
"As the mall was open for business Monday night, police were concerned that the bear would put the high number of pedestrians in the area at great risk," said Falebrinza. "The RCMP members acted quickly and decisively to respond to the bear and to protect the public. The police officers were satisfied that with the backdrop of the loading dock it was safe to use their firearms. Police officers shot and wounded the bear, which then ran into the parking lot. Police followed it and were able to destroy the bear without harm to the surrounding public."
Gibsons resident Jason Lesko was one of the witnesses. He feels this situation could have been handled better.
"This was handled so very wrong on so many levels, and it all starts with the local detachment of our RCMP," Lesko said. "This is happening too much these days - killing an animal because its walking around in public and digging through a dumpster? This bear was not aggressive. The police later said they did what they had to do to protect the public. I'm not saying all police are bad; the job can be difficult. But with cops like this running around with all guns blazing, who protects us from them?"
Falebrinza said he is aware of the public's concern over how the situation was handled and the witnesses who were in the area urging police to not kill the animal.
"We just didn't show up and start shooting," said Falebrinza. "With the amount of people in the area, there was no way for the bear to leave without going through a populated area. If we leave and don't take any action and the bear does attack someone, then what? Our members made the unfortunate decision to shoot the bear. This is a sad situation. It's unfortunate and we all feel bad that it had to come to this. Sometimes we're left with no other choices."
Conservation officer Murray Smith confirmed with Coast Reporter on Tuesday afternoon that police did phone the call centre, but the message was not put through to the Sechelt officers.
"There was a mix-up. [The call] didn't get through to the officers in Sechelt," said Smith. "We are looking into this and why the mix-up happened. It's an unfortunate situation, but if we had attended, we probably would have been in the same situation and the result may have been the same. At the end of the day, we support the actions of the RCMP."
Smith said there are procedures and policies in place when it comes to the issue of tranquilizing a bear instead of destroying it.
"We won't tranquilize a free-ranging bear, a bear that basically isn't contained in a safe area, because before the full effects of the drug set it, the bear is agitated and will take off in a mad panic. A bear in that state could do a lot of damage," Smith said. "At the end of the day, with this situation, we have a threat to safety. This is about a bear being in an area of high human population, and safety is a concern. The response by the RCMP was justified."
Smith said the community should be asking why the bear was there in the first place.
"We have garbage from the mall that was contained in an improper fashion. It happens every year," he said. "The conservation service has done a lot of work with the mall; however, we still continue to have a problem. It's not just the mall; it's the entire business corridor along that stretch of the highway. Until the merchants take responsibility for their garbage, we will have these problems."
According to Smith, there have been 632 bear calls this year, and the conservation service has been forced to destroy 10 animals. This total does not reflect the bear killed Monday night. Smith said the public has destroyed four bears and eight cubs have been taken to animal rehabilitation on the Coast by conservation.
"We get lots of bear problems in this community and we hate being put in the situation of killing the animal," Smith said. "It's an awful thing to do, but until we all deal with attractant issues, these cases will continue to plague this community."
