A black bear was shot and killed in Burnaby yesterday (June 19) after getting "dangerously close" to the public.
Vancouver Police Department (VPD) spokesperson Sgt. Steve Addison says, in a statement to the NOW, a black bear ventured into a busy residential area near the Burnaby-Vancouver border around 11 a.m. on Sunday.
Police started monitoring the bear with hopes it would move to a safer place.
But Addison explains officers were forced to shoot the bear after it crossed a short distance into Burnaby.
The bear was going "in and out of yards," was getting too close to people and pets and was "walking in traffic," he adds.
According to social media, the bear was believed to have been shot near the intersection of Hastings Street and Boundary Road.
One person claims the bear was tracked for 15 blocks.
When the bruin was first spotted, VPD notified the BC Conservation Officer Service (BCCOS) as well as animal control for assistance.
Animal control staff were deployed, but they didn't arrive before police were forced to kill the bear, Addison says.
According to WildSafeBC's Wildlife Alert Reporting Program, there have been 103 reported black bear sightings in Burnaby since January 1, 2022.
The provincial organization encourages residents to consider the following tips around bears:
- Keep your garbage in or secured until the day of collection. Garbage is the number one attractant cited in reports to the provincial hotline
- Manage your fruit trees
- Don’t let windfalls accumulate, and pick fruit as it ripens
- If you don’t want the fruit, consider...
- Accessing a fruit gleaning group in your community
- Washing the blossoms off in the spring so the fruit doesn’t set
- Replacing the tree with a non-fruit bearing variety
- Don’t put out bird feeders when bears are active
- A kilo of bird seed has approximately 8,000 calories and is a great reward for a hungry bear
- Keep your compost working properly with lots of brown materials and a regular schedule of turning
- If you have livestock or backyard chickens use a properly installed and maintained electric fence to keep bears and livestock apart
- with files from Kyle Balzer, Tri-City News
