A Brief Comment from Doug Draper
This is another one of those stories about the ignorance and violence that too often plays out around our relationship with other great creatures on this earth that makes me furious.
The Newmarket black bear, moments before it tried climbing down the tree and was shot to death for, so far, harming no one!
So furious that I had to let a day go by before I posted this column for fear it would be peppered with George Carlin’s list of the seven words you can’t say on television.
The story I am talking about is one of a recent sighting of a black bear in the Greater Toronto Area community of Newmarket that ended this June 1st with a decision by York Regional Police to shoot the bear to death when it began climbing down from a tree it was hiding in.
According to one Toronto area media outlet, the final moments of this bear-sighting saga ended like this; “The animal was located in a backyard of a Newmarket, Ont. home on London Rd. near Yonge St. and Davis Dr. Monday morning.
Officers had the bear surrounded and were waiting for Ontario ministry wildlife experts to arrive prior to the shooting.
Police say the animal had made it up a tree and was climbing down when it was shot.
“Bear began coming down from a tree and became a risk to people in the area,” tweeted York Regional Police. “Officers have shot the bear due to having no other options.”
In fairness to the police, they are not wildlife experts and it would be unreasonable to expect them to be when they are already tasked with addressing everything from traffic violations and domestic disputes to robberies, assaults, homicides and possible terrorist attacks. They are also not equipped with tranquillizer guns..
However, there were other options.
There were well-publicized sightings of this bear for at least two or three days before it was shot. That gave police and other members of the community plenty of time to contact wildlife professionals, equipped with the means to humanely capture, sedate and relocate the animal to a more suitable region of the province to live out its life.
Instead, what we’ve learned through a number of media reports is that authorities waited until the bear was spotted in a residential yard, hiding in the branches of a tree, before they called the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources. By then, the bear, surrounded by people and media helicopters hovering overhead, tried escaping from the tree at which point it was shot and killed – only a few minutes before ministry field workers showed up.
“The bear was probably more afraid of the people than they were afraid of the bear,” Sandy Donald, a director of Ontario Wildlife Rescue said when contacted by Niagara At Large on this sorry episode.
“It was human mistakes that led to this happening and now this bear is dead,” added Mark McIntosh from a Huntsville, Ontario area group called Bear With Us that is dedicated to protecting what is left of our bear populations in the province.
Indeed, those mistakes include our continued insistence on bulldozing over ever more natural habitat for other creatures to make way for ever more low-density urban sprawl. Then of course, the new residents of these places get all fired up if they see a bear, wolf or other wild animal they believe is dangerous there, and want the authorities to come in to blow these animals away.
This June 2nd, CBC’s Radio Noon program in Ontario featured a short interview with the province’s Minister of Natural Resources Bill Mauro on this bear killing. Mauro, to his discredit, spoke of the episode in soulless, clinical, bureaucratic terms. He droned away during the interview about the need to take steps to deal with a “nuissance animal … wandering in an organized neighbourhood.”
It occurred to me that the execution of this bear took place on the same June 1st date that many media outlets reminded us that 40 years ago, on this same date, the movie Jaws – regarded by many movie writers as the first and still one of the biggest summer blockbuster films of all time – was released in theatres across North America.
The film, about a fictitious great white shark that killed people at random until it was destroyed in a bloody explosion, led to an epidemic of people killing sharks at will – a practice that became so disturbing that Peter Benchley, the author of the book that inspired the movie, spent much of the rest of his life leading a campaign to protect sharks from possible extinction.
Mahatma Gandhi, one of the great voices of peace in the 20th century and one of the great humanitarian voices for all time, was once famously quoted saying that “the greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.”
Whether it comes to gunning down a wolf or a mountain lion because it is now in the way of a new low density node of city dwellers who want to live further out in the country, or the bullet drilling of this poor bear, we have failed at Gandhi’s measure of a truly progressive human race once again.
We humans should feel how awesome it is to share this wonderful planet with other great creatures for the short time we are all here. This bear lost that chance to be here, sharing what is left of the same green haven in all of the universe, due to our continued ignorance and will to learn how to co-exist with our fellow travellors in this life.
We should all hang our heads in collective shame.
Now NAL wishes to share links to two important websites by people devoted to animal care and they are as follows – Click on for more information http://bearwithus.org/wordpress/contact-us
Also click on http://www.ontariowildliferescue.ca/wildlifecentres/ .
Now here is a message from Catherine Ens and Niagara Action for Animals on the same topic.
Dear Friends of Animals –
Most of you will have heard the news today that a frightened bear, who had been roaming the neighbourhood for days, was shot dead in Newmarket. Only 2 hours away is Bear With Us Sanctuary, whom i’m sure would have come to help, had they been asked. Why did it take the Ministry days? Couldn’t the police have contacted a local vet or someone to help tranquilize the bear? Why does killing always seem to be the default? …Surely the police, with that much notice, could have chosen another option! There are many more questions than answers to this sad predicament.
It is too late for this bear, but lets make sure people in power know how we feel about this, so that it could possibly prevent something like this happening to another!
I urge you to send a quick note or email to the following people – I’ve tried to make this easy by providing all the links & addresses for you – let’s knock this one out of the ballpark…. and there is also a link to sign a petition!
Ministry of Natural Resources – The link takes you to the MNR contact page and includes their address, toll free phone and automated email form – https://www.ontario.ca/contact-us
Minister of Natural Resources – The Hon. Bill Mauro’s contact info at the Ministry and his home constituencies – http://www.ontla.on.ca/web/members/members_detail.do?locale=en&ID=2147
York Regional Police – Scroll down when you open this link; it includes a mailing address, email & link to fill out a complaint: https://www.yrp.ca/en/about/Contact-Us.asp
And please sign this petition which questions police practices regarding wildlife: https://www.change.org/p/government-of-ontario-york-regional-police-inquest-into-police-practices-regarding-wildlife-response
Niagara Action for Animals is a non-profit, all volunteer charity devoted to ending all forms of animal cruelty through education, direct action and legitimate protest. Nothing contained in this email is intended to encourage or incite illicit acts. Please let us know (by return email) if you no longer wish to receive these email alerts.
(Niagara At Large now invites all those who dare to share their real first and last name to comment on this post.)
Niagara At Large 
Doug, like you I have not commented on this issue to the point where I am suffering the social media equivalent to blood running down my throat from biting my tongue.
Doug and Catherine there is nothing that I can add to your eloquent and informed comments as it relates to the reprehensible manner in which this situation was handled.
What I would like to add is this. It is imperative the OPP, Metro police (all cities) and the OMNR develop an action plan for situations such as this. In the past few years we have seen deer crashing through windows in downtown Toronto, bears wandering through Barrie and Orillia and now Newmarket, coyotes running amok in the Beaches (go Wiley) and of course here in Niagara, raccoons being thrown off roofs and beaten with rocks. Beavers being blown up on Toronto Island and ravaged by dogs. Why, because we humans have encroached on their homes, their lives, their food source their habitat and being the ignorant bullies we are, expect them to back off and leave us alone.
There has been a great deal of tax dollars spent by the provincial government in the development of the Bear Wise Program http://www.ontario.ca/environment-and-energy/report-bear-problem-bear-wise. Nowhere in this information does it suggest blowing the poor thing out of a tree.
I have been involved with trapping,rehabilitating and releasing black bears. I have used a blow dart to tranquilize and then transport bears. Mike McIntosh of Bears With Us, one of the most respected and knowledgeable bear brains in this country is correct, there is a much better way to deal with these situations and the powers that be had damn well better figure it out soon.
I guarantee you that bear died a terrified, brutal death as a result of human incompetence, stupidity and total lack of compassion.
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I was very upset too. The bear must have been terrified. It was in the middle of a media circus. It attacked no one and just wanted to escape.
Instead of shooting animals perhaps it’s time to cull the human herd. There are too many of us and we stride over the countryside like we own it. They were here first. They are being pushed farther and farther away. Where can they go? It seems any encounter with humans leads to a death sentence.
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Amazing that we can get 30MNR down here in Niagara to assist in killing deer in the Short Hills Park but we couldnt scare up one Officer to save this bear’s life. Another example of the true MNR agenda of Min. Mauro and his gang of thugs.
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Bill Mauro and his comment during the interview about the need to take steps to deal with a “nuisance animal .
He is an embarrassment to our Ontario government.
This bear killing was unnecessary. There are other solutions as mentioned in the above comments.
There needs to be education to the public, police and apparently Mr. Mauro about dealing with our wildlife.
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I live in the town of Aurora, adjacent to Newmarket. This was a juvenile bear, probably about a year old, and I listened to this happening live with great trepidation. Most bears are more afraid of people, and as a young bear, I’m sure he was more concerned with getting away from the banging noises and helicopters than he was in launching an attack on a passersby.
The police collected reports of this bear for two days while he moved between yards, so there was no excuse for the MNR to be caught off-guard. While I understand that MNR conservation officers and scientists have been cutback over recent years for budgetary reasons, it’s also clear that wildlife encounters in communities bridging rural to urban are going to increase as development continues.
I’m also not surprised to see Bill Mauro’s name come up so soon after the fiasco with the deer in Short Hills Park. There must still be a few good people in the MNR but they are eclipsed by these disinterested, indentured public servants who have no apparent interest in actually protecting wildlife.
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I also find this killing disgusting. I have written the Minister to tell him what I think.
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