Posted on 05/22/2003 6:58:40 PM PDT by ATOMIC_PUNK
Boy's bear visit speaks volumes about hunt
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Thursday, May 22, 2003 |
It's been a wild two days for a kid still in diapers who can't talk, but Mark Tregidgo of Sparta has suddenly become the poster child for New Jersey's proposed bear hunt.
Tregidgo survived a close encounter with a black bear that wandered into an enclosed front porch Tuesday afternoon and touched him. Now the bear is dead, the child was to appear with his family today on "Good Morning America," - and the state Division of Youth and Family Services is investigating whether the boy was unsupervised as the incident developed.
"I've gone from a nobody to a somebody pretty quickly," said the boy's 29-year-old father, Django. The "Good Morning America" crew was to interview him this morning from the same porch where the incident took place. He's also gotten a call from a filmmaker from the Discovery Channel looking to do a segment on the problem of bears in suburbia.
The Tregidgo family's 15 minutes of fame come on the day when hunters and animal rights activists are heading to Trenton, where the state Fish and Game Council is holding a public hearing on a bear hunt proposed for December. The opposing sides have waged a war of words for months -but ironically, what happened to a 2-year-old who can't talk yet may end up speaking the loudest.
Mark's mother, Amy, says she was in the bathroom Tuesday afternoon when the tot wandered into the porch. She came out to find Mark there - with a 175-pound female bear right next to him.
What happened next is what the state refers to as a "Category One Incident." Amy saw the bear paw at Mark, tapping him on the side of the head. The boy wasn't hurt, but the act amounted to a death sentence for the bear: The state defines a Category One incident as anytime a bear comes within 10 feet of human, and can be killed.
"It didn't seem like he [she] was trying to hurt him," his mother said. The bear "just kind of pushed him on the side of the head."
After frantically shooing the bear away, she dialed 911; the bear scampered across the yard and stopped to relieve herself. Snuggles, the family pit bull, then came around from the side of the house and started barking, but the bear wouldn't leave. Minutes later, three Sparta police officers arrived and drew their shotguns. Three shots later, the bear was dead.
"Frightening is not the word to describe how I felt," Amy said. "Terrifying is more like it."
DEP Commissioner Bradley M. Campbell on Wednesday defended the killing as an "appropriate, if regrettable," response.
"This is an unhappy incident but it is a situation where a child has been put at risk," he said.
Django Tregidgo said the bear was probably going for the bag of garbage he had on the porch. "I can't store all of my garbage in the house," he said. "And if I put it in a shed, the bears would tear the shed down."
Campbell alluded to that aspect of the incident, saying it was a reminder that residents of bear country should either keep their garbage inside, or use bear-proof containers.
The state Fish and Game Council has proposed issuing up to 10,000 permits to hunters to reduce the state's bear population, which is estimated at 1,500 to 3,200. But hunting opponents say the state should take a more aggressive approach to educating residents on co-existence with bears. They want municipalities to enforce a state law that forbids feeding the bears, either intentionally or unintentionally.
This year, the state and pro-bear groups also agreed to jointly explore a contraceptive program for wild bears.
Lynda Smith, director of the Bear Education and Resource Center of West Milford, said the group will donate a bear-proof garbage can to the Tregidgos.
"Of course everyone is concerned with what might have happened," Smith said. "But the fact is, the child wasn't hurt. The bear wasn't acting aggressively."
The incident has prompted a media feeding frenzy at the Tregidgos house on Deerfield Lane. The story made it onto the 11 o'clock news on two networks.
But it was a knock on the door after midnight that had Django Tregidgo upset.
It was a DYFS case worker, wanting to know why the child had been left unattended to wander onto the porch, and for how long. "I told him to get out of the house or I was going to call the cops," Tregidgo said. "What gives them the right to come at 12:30 at night?"
The case worker departed after a brief interview.
DYFS spokesman Joseph Delmar said the agency heard about the incident and sent the case worker to make sure the child had been properly supervised. Delmar would not comment on the investigation.
Amy Tregidgo said the boy was out of her sight for only a few moments before she went looking for him on the porch. Her son doesn't appear traumatized by the incident, she said.
He been pointing to his head and saying 'bear,' " she said.
Maybe they should talk the DYFS into wearing contraceptives or better yet slipping a condom onto the bears !
What were they shooting - birdshot?
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You don't know much about shotguns, do you?
A bear can take repeated fatal hits with 12 guage slugs and still kill you before dying. Really.
A bear can take repeated fatal hits with 12 guage slugs and still kill you before dying. Really.
Too late!
Too late!
Talk about BS, this is BS.
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