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Orphan bear cubs taken, euthanized

Woman who cared for one grieves

By: Lindsey Wiebe

Posted: 05/30/2009 1:00 AM | Comments: 0 (including replies)

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An orphaned bear cub is pictured while under the care of Lorie Galenic. (LORIE GALENIC PHOTO)

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A woman in Brochet is heartbroken after Manitoba Conservation staff took and killed two orphaned black bear cubs.

Lorie Galenic said someone from the northern community shot a mother bear who had three cubs in tow during an ice fishing derby on Saturday. A local man rescued the cubs, she said, and various people cared for them until Conservation was called the next day.

"The people that were involved (with) these bear cubs felt that we had done the right thing, and that we had saved them," said Galenic, who cared for a cub.

Conservation warned that the bears might have to be put down, Galenic said, but said they would try to place them in a home or rehabilitation centre first. Conservation staff collected two of the cubs, but local children had already released a third, she said.

When Galenic called to check up on them, she said she was told the two bear cubs had been euthanized.

"I was so upset over this," said Galenic, who believes Conservation didn't try hard enough to find a zoo or other home for the animals.

"If I had known that that would be the situation, I would have never surrendered the bear."

The man in charge of problem wildlife at Manitoba Conservation said there's nowhere to take orphaned bears in Manitoba. Orphaned bear reports are rare, said Vince Crichton, but he couldn't recall any cases where Conservation placed an orphaned cub in a new home in recent decades.

"When we have gone looking for facilities to accept such orphaned bears, it's tough to find anybody that wants them," he said. "Other jurisdictions have the same issue."

Crichton said it's against Manitoba Conservation policy to leave bear cubs in the wild unless they are likely to survive. It's still winter in the north, he said, and "the chances of survival of those little guys are next to zero."

Crichton said this case is out of the ordinary: In most cases where people think an animal is orphaned, its mother is hunting or foraging, he said. Animals imprinted by humans early in life often can't be reintroduced to the wild.

"We try to encourage the public to leave them alone," he said.

A city spokesman said Friday the Assiniboine Park Zoo has two black bears and can't take more.

Even if they took a cub temporarily, he said, the zoo is not allowed to issue the exit permits necessary to send the bears to another zoo.

A staffer at the Wildlife Haven Rehabilitation Centre said they're not equipped to take bear cubs. That's due in part to the challenges of getting necessary permits and difficulties rehabilitating bears elsewhere, she said.

Galenic believes the person who shot the mother bear should be punished, and said if there's nowhere to take orphaned bears, there should be.

"There's definitely a need for some sort of rehabilitation centre for bears to be started," she said.

Conservation officials are investigating the shooting of the mother bear, Crichton said.

lindsey.wiebe@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition May 30, 2009 A5

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