EDITORIAL: Dirty, deadly work
Once again, B.C. Conservation Officers are being criticized for doing the dirty work created by garbage scofflaws who refuse to clean up their act.
No one likes the idea of bears being shot for being bears, least of all the officers, but when bears start eating garbage and getting habituated to humans, they turn into problem bears and options are limited.
The fact is, bears are supposed to hibernate in winter but they’ll stay awake if there is food around so the people to blame for three recent Port Coquitlam bear deaths are careless people, not the conservation officers who dispatched them.
Dropping bears off deep in the forest is the option preferred by most but, let’s face it, in winter, when there’s nothing to eat, those bears would have starved to death. We might feel better but the bear’s fate would have been the same.
The problem is garbage and those Port Coquitlam bears killed last week would be still be alive today, snoozing away the winter, if it weren’t so easy to get.
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