I am sooooo screwed. GUESS WHO'S BACK! Pic

[lovemychix]

This post makes me appreciate living in Iowa. Wow! I would prob poop my pants if I saw something like that. My hubby said he saw a honey bear in the bottoms by the river only once. He said they are harmless. We just have common varmit pests here. Cougars are beginning to migrate into our area. Many sightings of them. My sister said one was about 600 ft from her backyard on day. She couldn't believe it. She won't let her kids play outside without her there now!!

 

[patandchickens]

Shellie, it would really be worth listening to the voices of people who have lived in bear country for years. Note that NO serious bear country dwellers go 'round saying "oh yes, by all means leave trash out where bears can get it, that will actually protect your dogs and household from attack". No, what they uniformly say is "do NOT leave trash etc where bears can get it, because that makes your dogs and household MORE likely to encounter bear problems, by encouraging bears to linger rather than move on through".

Furthermore, in many places, knowingly leaving garbage out that is accessible/attractive to bears IS considered baiting, even in a legal sense. For some random examples, try googling; you will find things like

http://www.igbconline.org/html/y-ipn1-9-21-07.html ("Fremont County Sheriff Ralph Davis said Monday he will ask deputies to start citing people who are leaving garbage around their property that may be attracting grizzly and black bears. ")

http://www.wc.adfg.state.ak.us/index.cfm?adfg=bears.harmony ([Alaska state] "law states, “A person may not intentionally feed a moose, deer, elk, bear, wolf, coyote, fox, or wolverine, or negligently leave human food, animal food, or garbage in a manner that attracts these animals.” It is also against the law to kill a bear you have attracted by improperly storing human food, animal food, or garbage.")

and so forth and so on.

I would not expect one iota of cooperation from the Game Warden if you are not doing your part to avoid attracting the bear. (This may mean no birdfeeder as well, btw). Just because you do not live in one of the (fairly large number of) communities in bear territory that REQUIRE you to put garbage out in a bearproof container does not mean you can't learn from their example when you start having problems, as indeed you are.

Garbage is VASTLY more attractive to bears than a chicken coop.

It is possible that you may get away with shooting this bear and not get prosecuted -- it depends on who happens to find out what, and what mood they're in -- but you know, this is scarcely the only bear around. You can't keep waiting every year for hunting season to roll 'round. You need to keep your garbage indoors til trash morning, or put it in something bearproof. Welcome to the country, that's just how it IS.

Good luck,

Pat

 

[TerryLee]

HOLY CRAP!!! That sucker is BIG, and I would assume Dangerous.

I see most of my fellow Texans earlier in the thread thought the same. We don't gots bears in Tx... lol

I commend all you Yanks for trying to follow the rules, but geez, if that had been on my property, it would have been in the freezer and labeled BEEF by now. Guess it's just what you get use to, here, I think nothing of going down in the pasture that I've regularly seen herds of 50 or 60 feral hogs migrate through, some of them well over 400lbs. and would think nothing of killing and eating a human. I do always carry a gun with me though and wouldn't hesitate a second to shoot. (Very legal, and actually encouraged, we have a bounty on them year round)

We do have cougars/mountain lions, both black and fawn colored, as long as there is plenty of small game around they don't bother humans, domestic animals, livestock, or I should say, ours never have. I've seen plenty around here and never lost an animal to them, actually they seem to want as far away from me as I want away from them.

Seems to me that breaking through a little chicken wire would be just as easy as eating trash, so I'm with you Shelley, I'd think, if he wasn't eating the trash, he'd be eating something else, possibly your chickens. Who says the trash attracted him? Maybe the smell of the chickens did, and he just found the trash first. Only the bear's nose knows. (Oh wait, don't tell me, we've paid for some sort of billion dollar govt. funded study to figure that out, I betcha

)

Sounds like they can smell just about any kind of food from a great distance, and Shelley didn't make him unafraid of humans, he was that way when they met, she's just the one having to deal with it. I'm curious, why wouldn't the cooking of any kind of food be considered baiting, since obviously the bear can smell it, and knows it's food. Why is leaving trash out, baiting, and cooking outside not considered baiting? Why is keeping domestic animals and chickens not considered baiting? I'm not trying to be smartalic here, I just don't understand the logic. Food is food.

Sure he'd start with the easiest thing to get to, but if the trash hadn't been there, that would have probably been the chickens.

$200 for a trash can, in today's economy... and after just renovating a property ... pfft. $10 ammo, $200 trash can, hmmmm which would I choose?

~Terry - who just reread my post and thought of the words of a song " It maybe my family's of Redneck persuasion, rubbin off, bringing out unladylike behavior ..."
yep, he'd still be in my freezer, legal or not. Fine me if ya find me.

 

[mikeksfarmer]

There is a lot of posts and I have not read them all. It seems to me that if I didnt want a bear hanging out I wouldnt invite him. At this time of year he is eating any thing in site to fatten up for Hibernation. Living in the country has a price; you can learn to live with it, or you can wipe it out. Then your not in the country any more. If you insist on having your trash out side get a lockable dumpster. put a real lock on it. Prevent odors that atract the bear. I feeze meat wrappers until trash pick up. Dont put food items in the trash container until trash pick up day or burn day. Do not leave live stock food out and around to attract him either. Thats just my thoughts. I live in the country and I see people move out there and think they have to have a sterol yard. I learn to live with many things and I get great experiences for it. For the average bear I hope my thoughts are worth something.

 

[wilds of pa]

Pa is not all excluded from baiting "some animals", you can hunt over bait for coyotes..

also in parts of pa they can hunt deer on private properties over bait as well, this is in five county's of Pa.

Like i said, id find where he is spending his mornings and afternoons and take him there, could be up to mile away or closer. Id say if you take him within 1/4 mile that would be tough for them to say hunting over bait..that is for sure, thats if anybody even knows his visited there once or twice in a year



Charlie

 

[mangled]

We routinely bait and shoot coyotes. Legally.

We routinely feed the deer and then shoot them during deer season. Legally.

The GC in PA leaves much to be desired. Do what you have to do and keep you and yours safe.

Good luck with the bear. Baiting or not, I'd get my tags and dispose of him.

Em

 

[mrsengeseth]

ack!! that's a big bear. I don't care if they come in bigger sizes, that one's big enough to scare the whiz outta me!!!

If he spooks easy would an air horn maybe scare him off ?

Or maybe an "electric fence" around the trash cans? Or maybe one so many feet away from but in a perimiter around your chicken house would give a little peace of mind?

 

[wilds of pa]

Im with ya mangled all the way on that..

Charlie

 

[SterlingAcres]

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[providentialpastures]

Forget frozen paintballs, except as a last resort. Go with someting a little larger in caliber maybe like a 30-6 or a 270 (legally). If you wanted to you could even get something like a 458 Lott, though I would not recommend it as it is typically only used for rear-end shots on elephants, assorted dinosaurs, hippos, etc. I would also suggest a tree stand, because I have heard stories about people shooting bears and the bears shrugging bullets off like raindrops and giving the donor of the bullets a bear-hug accompanied by big, wet, slobbery kiss. Happy hunting!