It's true - "A fed bear is a dead bear."
When wildlife officers find a nuisance bear young enough to be "negatively conditioned" to stay away from people, trapping and releasing them elsewhere amidst pelting with paintballs or rubber slugs, noise, lights and other scary things, they may have saved the bears' life if it makes a big enough impression.
Where I live we have a 60% summer resident spike from NYC and Albany (I'm in the Berkshires, western MA) and what I see a lot on the job are "summer people" who think feeding wildlife is a kind thing to do. Sigh.
When the bears show up to raid the garbage cans or cat/dog food left out on the deck, everyone stands at the sliding glass doors with their noses pressed up against it, going "Ohhh" and "Ahhh"... and guaranteeing a death sentence for the animals who become less and less wary of people.
And just cause I like this pic --
