Food For Thought, on Bears

I've been away on vacation and haven't been able to post for the month of July, but I'm back!

One of the best stops we made was at the Northern Lights Wolf Centre near Golden, BC. During our visit, we learned about Karelian Bear Dogs and the role they could play in protecting our urban areas from habituated (garbage or problem) bears.

A couple of interesting tidbits I learned:

FACT: on average, 1000 bears lose their lives in BC each year for being "problem bears".

The way Karelian Bear Dogs may typically be used to help bears:
A trained team of bear dogs and a dog handler work with the Conservation Officer (CO), usually in a chase situation. The bear is chased to a safe distance away, at which point the chase is called off. This tells the bear that it is a territorial dispute and not a predatory attack. The bear learns recognize the boundary of our territory and learns to stay away.
through educational programs like BearSmart and BearAware, a trained team of humans work with the community to teach proper disposal of garbage, fruit from fruit trees, etc... so as not to continue to attract wildlife to their property. "A fed bear is a dead bear".
(The Northern Lights Wolf Centre website. http://www.northernlightswildlife.com/karelian_bear_dogs.htm)

So why aren't BC conservation officers using these dogs? Good question, and one I asked as well. The answer: It is illegal to chase bears in BC with dogs, because it is considered harassment to wildlife. The folks doing the great work at the Northern Lights Wolf Centre are working hard to get the law changed, and get an amendment to the BC Wildlife Act to allow for Karelian Bear Dogs to assist Conservation Officers in their job. They need more help to convince the Minsitry of Environment to make this change!!

I would think that the recent incidents on Vancouver's coast would be more than enough example as to what the use of trained Karelian Bear Dogs could have achieved. As we encroach further and further into their native habitats by building roads, towns, power grids, etc, the more we are going to see incidents between habituated bears and the humans that unconsciously invited them.