XPost: can.general, can.rec.hunting, soc.culture.canada 
 From: abc@123.cl 
  
 Alberta wildlife officers kill 12 bears at dump 
  
  
 August 14, 2009 
  
  
 This handout photo from the Colorado Division of Wildlife taken July 
 26, 2001 and released to Reuters August 31, 2007 shows a black bear in 
 trash dumpster in a residential neighborhood in Colorado. Wildlife 
 officers there killed dozens of black bears after catching the 
 marauding bruins rummaging through campsites, foraging in neighborhood 
 trash cans and breaking into homes for food after weather conditions 
 decimated the species natural food supply this year. Wildlife officers 
 shot and killed 12 black bears at a landfill in northern Alberta on 
 Tuesday in what is believed to be the largest bear cull in recent 
 history. People who lived near the dump regularly brought their 
 children to the site to watch, photograph and feed the bears, and the 
 animals had become accustomed to people. 
  
 More Images € 
  
 This handout photo from the Colorado Division of Wildlife taken July 
 26, 2001 and released to Reuters August 31, 2007 shows a black bear in 
 trash dumpster in a residential neighborhood in Colorado. Wildlife 
 officers there killed dozens of black bears after catching the 
 marauding bruins rummaging through campsites, foraging in neighborhood 
 trash cans and breaking into homes for food after weather conditions 
 decimated the species natural food supply this year. Wildlife officers 
 shot and killed 12 black bears at a landfill in northern Alberta on 
 Tuesday in what is believed to be the largest bear cull in recent 
 history. People who lived near the dump regularly brought their 
 children to the site to watch, photograph and feed the bears, and the 
 animals had become accustomed to people. 
 Photograph by: Michael Seraphin, Reuters 
  
 EDMONTON € Wildlife officers shot and killed 12 black bears at a 
 landfill in northern Alberta on Tuesday in what is believed to be the 
 largest bear cull in recent history. 
  
 People from the hamlet of Conklin, population 166, regularly bring 
 their children to the dump to watch, photograph and feed the bears, and 
 the animals had become accustomed to people. 
  
 €The landfill had improper fencing and there were reports people were 
 feeding the bears,€ Alberta Sustainable Resource Development spokesman 
 Darcy Whiteside said. €It was public safety concern. These bears were 
 not afraid of humans anymore.€ 
  
 But critics said the mass killing was inexcusable. 
  
 €Instead of investing in fences that would keep the bears out of the 
 garbage and away from humans, they decide the cheapest solution is to 
 lay to waste a bunch of living animals as if they didn€t have a right 
 to exist. It€s really deplorable,€ said Sid Marty, a park warden turned 
 activist who recently published a book about a garbage-seeking grizzly 
 who mauled five people in Banff, Alta., in the early 1980s, killing 
 one. 
  
 €What are they going to, shoot every bear that comes to the dump until 
 the end of time?€ 
  
 On Aug. 5, the ministry received a bear complaint from the PTI Conklin 
 Lodge, a housing complex for about 300 oilsands workers, about two 
 kilometres from the dump. 
  
 Fred Bannon, vice-president of operations, said the manager called fish 
 and wildlife officers after he saw five bears climbing on decks and 
 hanging around the buildings. 
  
 The bears were killed Aug. 11. 
  
 A Conklin resident who wished to remain anonymous was outraged when he 
 heard the bears were killed instead of relocated, and contacted The 
 Edmonton Journal. 
  
 €It€s totally inhumane. We are in their environment, there are no 
 fences, this dump is unmanned, there are no signs to say don€t feed the 
 bears,€ he said. 
  
 The ministry is currently working with communities as part of its new 
 Bear Smart education campaign, he said, and Conklin is on the list of 
 future communities to work with. In the meantime, officers will be 
 monitoring the area and making sure people don€t go to the dump to 
 visit the bears. 
  
 He said Alberta Environment and the municipality are responsible for 
 ensuring proper fencing is in place to protect bears and humans. €The 
 fencing issue has been addressed with the municipality. It€s not our 
 responsibility to build the fence around the landfill.€ 
  
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