Bears will not be shot: Minister of Environment; and the Bear Dude talks
By Mona Mattei
For 3,794 people who are linked into the ‘Help save the B.C. Black bears’ 
Penner explained the conservation officers involved in the case have determined that the bears are a low risk to the public and that, with reduced feeding, the animals should be foraging naturally by next spring.
“The suspects have been directed to ween the bears off food by Nov. 15 at their own cost,” said Penner. “Once they (the bears) winter, they should return to their normal habits in the spring. The last thing anyone wants is to shoot these animals.”
Penner also said they expect the bears to enter hibernation within six weeks as the weather changes. The bears were discovered by authorities when RCMP officers entered the property to bust a grow op of marijuana that had over 1,000 plants. The Grand-Forks-based conservation office had previously ordered the owners of the property to stop feeding the bears over two years ago.
In a video released by Nicco deHaan on Vimeo (see video), Piche talks about how he developed his relationship with the bears and the plan for helping them return to their habitat. He explained there are inaccuracies in all the stories being promoted in the press, and thanked everyone who has supported the bears’ plight – public attention that made it possible to develop the plan with the
“It was not necessary to ‘domesticate’ the bears in the first place, in fact I don’t think of anything I did as being a domestication of the bears,” he said. “We feed birds and don’t think of that as domestication. The same heart that feeds birds beats to see and know all wildlife. Of course, only certain people would try it with bears, but it’s still the same beat.
