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Title: Canadian pot growers used black bears to guard operation
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Published: Aug 19, 2010
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Post Date: 2010-08-19 22:11:15 by tom007
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Views: 161
Comments: 5
Canadian pot growers used black bears to guard operation By Agence France-Presse Thursday, August 19th, 2010 -- 8:21 pm submit to reddit Stumble This! 99Share 5diggsdigg blackbear Canadian pot growers used black bears to guard operationPolice said Wednesday they were astonished to find at least 14 wild black bears guarding an illegal marijuana growing operation after a recent raid on the property in westernmost Canada. Royal Canadian Mounted Police Sergeant Fred Mansveld said police believe two growers arrested in the raid had used dog food to lure the animals onto the remote property in southeastern British Columbia, to deter marijuana thieves. Police commonly find dogs, human guards or booby-traps on Canadian marijuana growing operations or "grow-ops." In comparison, these bears did a very poor job as guard animals when five policemen arrived. "They were tame, they just sat around watching... at one point one of the bears climbed onto the hood of a police car, sat there for a bit and then jumped off," said Mansveld. He said the officers involved in the July 30 raid were all familiar with wild animals, and while wary, were not afraid of the bears once they realized the animals were not aggressive. Story continues below... Black bears are common throughout Canada, and except in the cases of mothers with cubs, usually live solitary lives in the wilderness. It is against provincial law to feed them. By feeding them, said Dave Webster, a conservation officer with the provincial government who launched an investigation of the case on Wednesday, the marijuana growers delivered "a death sentence for the wild animals." Webster told AFP "tame" bears are dangerous, because once they?re fed they commonly seek out other people, frequently destroy property, and in very rare cases attack or even kill people. "If a bear is deemed to be a safety risk and is habituated to human food and not able to feed itself in the wild, it will be destroyed," he explained. Police, citizens or conservation officers kill untold hundreds of so-called "nuisance" bears annually throughout Canada. "It's killing animals by kindness," said Mansveld. "It?s terrible, a real shame." Mansfield said when police entered the house on the property, "we also found a pot belly pig and a little raccoon sleeping on the bed... it was friendly, it tried to climb one officer?s leg." Petitions by http://Change.org|Get Widget|Start a Petition » Loading comments... Problems loading Disqus? Like Dislike * 1 person liked this. Community Disqus * About Disqus Glad you liked it. Would you like to share? Facebook Twitter Share No thanks Sharing this page ... Thanks! Close Add New Comment Required: Please login below to comment. * * * * * * Post as … Showing 3 comments Sort by Subscribe by email Subscribe by RSS * chester77 [Moderator] 16 minutes ago bears probably weren't aggressive because they were smoking weed Flag Like Reply Reply * dennycrane [Moderator] 39 minutes ago Wow! Yogi finally found work. Flag Like Reply Reply * FellOnEarth [Moderator] 45 minutes ago California should be reintroducing the brown bear in the next few months. I'm kidding, bears need to be given free range in the wild. It sucks that humans don't understand that a wild animal needs to be wild, if it becomes accustomed to humans it may become dependent and a danger to humans. Some people are just idiots. I hope a bear rescue will take them in. Flag Like Reply Reply blog comments powered by Disqus Follow us! Fwix Get Raw Story updates! Email:
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#4. To: tom007 (#0)
This is a mistaken and potentially deadly assumption. Wild animals are at best "acclimated and trained", but never "tame". If they're hungry enough or ever feel threatened or even annoyed they may maim or kill because those instincts cannot ever be removed or replaced at least, in an animal that was once wild. Hell even family dogs kill infants when left alone with them. And, every tattooed snake handler showman I've read about has had to call for assistance at least once when their giant boa decided to constrict without warning. And, we've all read about bottlenose dolphins (porpoise) that suddenly decided to ram and break the ribs of swimmers who paid to frolic with them. And remember the Orca that killed that poor woman in Fla's SeaWorld? I watched a film clip of one famous bear trainer who had spent the night in a snowbank with the grizzly he raised from a cub. As they emerged in the morning he tried to pull the bear (with a choke collar and chain) in a different direction and the grumpy bear ripped and bit the trainer's leg. The bear could have easily killed the man had it been a bit more out of sorts.
This is a mistaken and potentially deadly assumption. Wild animals are at best "acclimated and trained", but never "tame". That's correct, they can be come accustomed to humans, but our social systems are not well integrated, and the deadly arts of their bodies can yield disaster to humans.
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Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest"They were tame,...."
#5. To: HOUNDDAWG (#4)
"They were tame,...."
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