Black bear sightings on the rise (more on FReeper's son and dog attack)

ABC-7 via SOUNDOFF ^ | 12-04-03

[Indie]

The right advice SHOULD BE, if it threatens you, pull down your rifle and blow its @ss away!

Got that one right. Black bears (any bear that ain't a Grizzly) attack because they intend to eat you, and will if you play dead.
Only Grizzly's will attack for pure defense and consider "leaving you alone" if you play dead.

[Clemenza]

No bears in NYC yet. But we do have Coyotes and even deer in the North Bronx (Pelham Bay Park, Woodlawn Cemetary).

[Tamzee]

I'm fond of German Shepherds myself. I have an Akita/lab mix, though, very protective and the Akita breed was used long ago for bear hunting :-)

[Tamzee]

Yep, with black bears you don't play dead... or climb a tree ;-)

[blam]

I have four dogs, two have been attacked by alligators and survived but with many stitches.

[AAABEST]

Yo!

R U back in NY? Weren't you down here in S. FL a while back?

Leave the gun.... take the canolis.

[Clemenza]

Been "keepin' it real" here in Brooklyn for a little over a year now. Came back up the NYC after three years in Miami. I missed the Canoli and the 'Sfogelletelle (prounced ZFoo-ja-dell).

[Rodney King]

Seems to be happening in many places.. up here in the north country of New York State we had a black bear wander across the golf course at the Saratoga Spa Golf Course in Saratoga Springs, NY. The golfers let the bear "play through!"

That's by far my favorite public course. My best friend lives up there and I try to get up there at least one weekend per summer. Those trees are just majestic, except of course when you hit your ball into them.

[Mamzelle]

re: Just a thought.. but isn't that the reason you move to the Mts?? I mean moving to the Mts and then complaining about the wildlife seems kinda odd to me.)))

Point taken, but there's more to the story. For instance, for the first half of the twentieth century, there were chestnut trees in the Blue Ridge Mountains, and not many bears to eat the nuts. Some, but not many, and the chestnuts provided the mast to support the wildlife in style. Bears were thinned and hunted. Now the trees are long gone, but the park rangers want to restore the wildlife pop to former levels. So they turn loose bears they have bred for that purpose--loose on farmers, orchards, etc.

You have bears that should have chestnuts after your garbage--but the park rangers won't let you shoot them. The bears are reproducing in numbers higher than when they had chestnuts to eat.

The problem is government-invented, not natural.

[aruanan]

Bears attacks are very rare and experts say if you don't bother them, they won't bother you.

The problem is that bears and people have different criteria as to what constitutes "bothering".

[Donaeus]

I guess Canadian bears are wimps.

Well, they are half French... Was he also carrying a white flag? LOL

[oldsalt]

"I think I'd be keeping a shotgun next to the back door if I lived around there."

I think you'd be better off with something a little heavier than a shotgun. I mean, if you're going to shoot at a bear you 'll want to kill it, not just p*** it off.

Try at least a .30-30 IMHO.

[Warhammer]

I would think that a 12ga loaded with 000 buckshot or slugs would do the trick right nicely.

[Stopislamnow]

Need a high velocity shot I would think. Bears are thick.
30-06 on up, high grain cartridges.

Always follow the 3 "S" rule when dealing with problem animals, from neighbors cat to big arse bears.

Shoot, Shovel, Shutup.

[dasher]

Time for a little help from Remington:

http://www.remingtonle.com/shotgun/870psyn.htm

A nice combination of slugs and 00 buckshot should work nicely.

[Bikers4Bush]

A shotgun loaded with slugs would not just piss it off.

[MD_Willington_1976]

Must have been the "Labbats Blue" Bear and his bar buddy...

[Coleus]

`

[Elliott Jackalope]

My wife and I live in the mountains, south of the "South Hill" area of Spokane. We have deer, quail, raccoons, coyotes, porcupines, owls, chipmunks, red squirrels, hawks and all kinds of other critters around our property, and we really enjoy them all. We also make sure to be smart about being around them. We don't leave garbage out where animals can get into it, and we don't do anything to either encourage or discourage the local critters. I have a strict "do not feed" policy with the local wildlife, with the exception of used bird food from my parrot, which gets tossed out back for the quail to feast upon. No feeders of any kind, but lots of natural habitat for the critters to live in.

Porcupines are a real hoot. They'll walk out into the yard, then just kind of "park", and meditate on what they want to do next. You can walk right up to them, heck, you could probably pet them if you were foolish enough to do so. They just sit there and look at you, as calm as can be. No bears or wolves in this area, at least none that I've seen. I just try to stay out of the way of the critters, and they stay out of my way. The deer love to eat my landscaping, so we've planted mostly things that they either don't find very tasty, or that grow back quick after being munched on.

The other day there was a deer standing outside the window looking in at our houseplants, so close his breath was fogging up the glass. We all got a good laugh out of that. There is a picture I took of a ruff grouse who was about ten yards outside of the back door, strutting around in the sun, the picture came out great. All in all we've achieved a nice balance with the wildlife around here, and we all get along fine.