Interviewed for this article, Buddy Bear had this to say: "I bit and clawed him once and if I get a chance I'll do it again. I think a Denis Ryan would make a good chew toy."
Posted on 09/16/2003 8:21:51 PM PDT by Pikamax
Quebecer snatches bear cub from mother
Gary Dimmock The Ottawa Citizen
Thursday, September 11, 2003
CREDIT: Andrew Wilson, Low Down to Hull and Back News
Denis Ryan, who wanted a black bear as a pet, snatched a young cub from the Gatineau River Tuesday and took it home. Police ordered him to let the cub go and it was later released into the woods as an orphan near Montebello, Que.
A Quebec woodsman who wanted a black bear as a pet, set out Tuesday morning and snatched a young cub from the Gatineau River -- its mother snarling from shore as Denis Ryan sped off on a Jet Ski, holding the kidnapped cub by the scruff of the neck.
The young cub, nicknamed Buddy Bear, was swimming across the river, near Wakefield's covered bridge, and was just a few feet from shore, and its mother, when it was abducted around 9: 30 a.m.
The bear managed to break free from his captor eight times by clawing at him. He tried in vain to swim to shore, only to be dragged back out into the river.
To wear out the bear, Mr. Ryan started running him over with the Jet Ski, forcing the cub's head under water.
The 55-year-old woodsman got his best grip on the cub by holding it upside down by one of its hind legs.
He then started dunking him again and again under water in a cruel attempt to drain the cub's energy.
The cub was now moaning, desperately trying to breathe.
"I just lifted him up and then I could dunk him. Then he couldn't breathe. I kept dunking and kept dunking him. Then I started to drive away," Mr. Ryan told the Citizen.
The cub, still dangling upside down by a hind leg, climbed aboard the moving Jet Ski.
In the distance, the cub's mother and sibling were looking on from the shore.
Mr. Ryan started speeding toward his home in Alcove, north of Wakefield along the Gatineau River.
This time, to stop the cub from jumping off again, he tied a rope around one of its hind legs and kept one hand on the leash, the other on the handle bars.
With the bear secured, he turned around and drove to a public landing in the heart of Wakefield. He figured a cub on the back of a Jet Ski would make a good picture for the town's newspaper.
He motioned to a passerby at the river's edge and told him to tell the newspaper, The Low down to Hull and back News, about the photo opportunity.
Just then, Buddy Bear jumped off the Jet Ski and the rope came loose.
As the cub broke free and started swimming for shore, Mr. Ryan's Jet Ski started sputtering. He was running out of gas.
The bear started swimming fast, putting 10 feet between him and and Mr. Ryan.
The bear reached shore first, just as Andrew Wilson, the newspaper's reporter, appeared on the river bank, camera in hand.
Below, Mr. Ryan jumped off the Jet Ski and tackled the bear as it tried to scramble up the bank.
"Then I tied him again and dunked him again to get the energy out of him. I tied him pretty good this time. He was so tired out," Mr. Ryan said.
Mr. Wilson fired off some photographs, then headed back to the newspaper and called Quebec's wildlife protection squad.
"It was a pretty distasteful sight. You have this man dunking this cub, basically the size of a small dog. The cub was obviously not a happy camper. It just seemed like a bad situation," Mr. Wilson said.
Exhausted, the cub lay on the river's edge, its paw tied, while Mr. Ryan flagged down a passing motorist for gas.
A friend stopped to help and Mr. Ryan later sped off to Alcove, the cub wedged under his leg to keep it from getting away.
The woodsman, who makes his living cutting and planting trees, said he intended to keep the cub on a leash at home to see if he could tame it before releasing it back into the wilderness with the hope it would return for visits.
He also said he wanted to keep the bear out of the village to spare children from being attacked.
Either way, passing motorists along the Gatineau called police, saying he was mistreating the cub.
"I could see their point of view, but from my point of view, it's one less bear in town where there are kids at school. That's not called being mean to the bear. That's called being nice to the children," he said.
"I was never mean to the bear. There was a couple of times I wanted to hit him over the head with a pipe or something but I didn't do that," Mr. Ryan said.
Once they reached the shore near his Alcove home, the bear, who was six to seven months old, ripped his leash and started clawing and biting at his captor's hands.
Mr. Ryan grabbed the bear by a hind leg again and was dragging it home when the MRC des Collines police stopped him, demanding that he let the cub go.
The police kept an eye on the bear until wildlife protection officers arrived.
The wildlife officers captured the bear and released it into the woods as an orphan near Montebello. They left plenty of food and water nearby and tagged the bear.
Quebec's wildlife protection squad is now investigating the abduction. If charged under the province's wildlife act, Mr. Ryan could face a $2,000 fine for possession of a big game animal without a permit.
Mr. Ryan has not been charged with any crime and the bear cub is now making home alone some 60 kilometres from where he last saw his family.
Mr. Ryan says if he sees more bears heading into town, he'll try to abduct them too.
"If I get a chance, I'll do it again. I think a bear would make a good pet."
Must be one of those Irish Frog bastards we hear about.
The guy is an idiot, in any nationality.
I would think that a bear cub that is six or seven months old is a lot bigger than a "small dog."
Interviewed for this article, Buddy Bear had this to say: "I bit and clawed him once and if I get a chance I'll do it again. I think a Denis Ryan would make a good chew toy."
What a sadistic psychopath; he makes me ashamed to belong to the same species.
Let's dunk this moron underwater a few times, drag him around, and tie him up, more dunking, etc.
See how he likes it!
The Mounties should have dropped him off somewhere north of the Arctic Circle. Where he could be some polar bear's b*tch.
Should read:
"The 55-year-old sadistic bastard who deserves to be fed to a mother bear ... "
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