Suburban Bears

[35wailin]

I know I live close to a greenbelt, but still. We usually have a bear roam through the neighbourhood about every second or third year. I saw two of them in the wee hours on my way to work and my neighbours have seen several during daylight and evening hours. As far as I know there were eight or nine sightings so far this year, including a momma and two cubs.

Last evening, my wife was in the front yard reading on the swing, the kids were in the back yard in the pool and I am working downstairs,
when she comes in telling me we have a visitor. After ascertaining it was of the black furry kind and I still had two kids in the back yard with no means of escape, I unlocked the shotgun, loaded up and went outside. The kids came out from the back and made it back in the house safely and I went to the end of the driveway, yelling and screaming at it to go away, fully prepared to use lethal force if the bear forced the issue.

Working downstairs again tonight, about the same time. Momma and at least one cub, with everyone safe and accounted for, so I left the shotgun locked up. I'm curious to see what will happen tomorrow. That's 3 bears within 30m of the house in 24 hours.

I know something has to be done. I'm not sure what.

I do know that these bears are too habituated to humans and they need to be taught some healthy respect. My wife tried the car horn yesterday and the bear looked over and went right back to what he was doing. That doesn't work. I'd love to have access to bear bangers and rubber slugs or beanbag rounds as well as blessing to use them from law enforcement, but that won't happen anytime soon.

According to the news, 1/3 of the bear calls this year are from Sudbury. We MAY have a problem?

[sawbill]

3900 calls province wide so far this year. 1300 of those and counting are in Sudbury.
Most people I talk to don't even bother to call anymore because no one responds. MNR won't go out after hours and the Sud Regional Police can only respond to a small portion.
As far back as I can remember its always been like that here, spring hunt or no spring hunt. Sudbury is unique in that even with a spring hunt, there is so much private and leased mining lands that hunters couldn't target the bears that are the problem.

[Hunter John]

And the berry crop crapped out this year so they are searching to fill that void.

[Snowwalker]

There is no reason you can not have bear bangers and rubber buckshot. There are place all over Canada that you can buy them from.

[JMatthews]

A buddy of mine who has a cottage in Sauble Beach had a Black Bear in his yard last night. It was after the food in his bird feeders.

[35wailin]

There is no reason you can not have bear bangers and rubber buckshot. There are place all over Canada that you can buy them from.

The problem is using them in a residential area and not having the tactical team respond...

[patvetzal]

I chased a mom and Cubs out of a school yard a few years ago, public school about fifteen minutes before the kids got out for lunch. After calling the bear line from the school office we decided never to waste our time again....

[35wailin]

I didn't even bother calling the Bear Hotline. What are they going to do? Tell me to make noise? Remove my garbage? That was done by the city on Tuesday morning. They bears Tuesday night didn't get the memo?

Clean my BBQ? Haven't used it since May when we started renovations in the basement.

Remove my bird feeders? Been gone for over 10 years.

Not going to waste my time.

Just too many bears in the area that are too used to living near people.

[Snowwalker]

The problem is using them in a residential area and not having the tactical team respond...

You buy the pen style bear bangers...
so what if the swat team shows up...maybe the tough guy in the black mask will have to clean a mess out of his shorts because he was jumping fences out behind my place and came face to face with the bear. Black bear, black masked man.....brown mess, and must likely dead bear.

[Scowcroft]

I came home from work a couple weeks ago and apparently a bear decided to use our driveway to have his picnic. This was at one in the afternoon too.