According to a recent media report, nuisance bear calls in the Georgian Bay area are now being fielded by the OPP. Not only that, the OPP in that region are saying the MNR no longer have any involvement.
So, does this mean the MNR is no longer dealing with nuisance bears across the rest of the province?
According to OPP Police Sargent Peter Leon his department will: “assess and deal with the situation in what is the most appropriate manner. Police will try to scare a bear away and make it afraid of people before resorting to shooting it” Leon said.
In 2010 alone, 182 bears were shot by officials province-wide and in 2011 the MNR trapped and relocated 623 bears. They also immobilized and relocated another 107 that same year.
Dealing with problem bears has become a full-time job in recent years!
Ontario’s Bear Wise public awareness program cost $33 million since its inception in 2004, and following major cuts within the MNR this spring, it is unclear how much (if any) of the program remains in effect today.
Yes, it is certainly a sad state of affairs when our province hasn’t enough money to keep tabs on its own wildlife. And you can’t really blame the MNR they work with what they have which, by all accounts, isn’t much these days.
I wonder, if the do-gooders had known 13-years ago the full effect of cancelling the spring bear hunt, would they have still done it?
Our black bear problem in Ontario has gone from the ridiculous to the sublime and I‘d like just one Animal Rights person out there to tell me the hunt cancellation was in the best interest of the animal.
Oh yeah, and ‘trying to scare a bear away so it is afraid of people’, I think even the Animal Rights people know that doesn’t work.
Outdoorsguy
