WINSTON-SALEM, N.C.—
The police department says officers had no choice but to shoot and kill a black bear wandering around the northwest part of the city Monday night. Officers said the bear became aggressive as it ate garbage and bird seed from homes along Kramer Court.Residents reported seeing the bear going through their trash cans around 9 p.m.
Rudy Kane, who lives on Kramer Court, had just returned home from a camping trip when he noticed the bear in his yard. He said he a bear at two different times Monday.
"Well I was in this house and I walked up to the kitchen window and there was this black bear," he said. "He just took his big ol' paw and just pulled that squirrel container right on down."
"Animal control said to not bother them. Let them go eat what they want and get out of there," Kane said. He did, but later that night, after neighbors called police about the bear in their garbage, the Kanes and police again found one of the bears back at the bird feeders.
"The bear was not retreating," said Police Chief Scott Cunningham. "(It was) standing its ground and (it) turned and made face-to-face contact with the officer and was making appropriate animal noises."
"And one of the officers shot him," recalled Kane. "He didn't hit a vital spot, and the bear climbed a tree." Kane said the bear then fell out of the tree.
"(It) got a little aggressive to the officers, ran up in the woods. They got up with him and shot him again," said Kane.
The department is not equipped with tranquilizer guns and darts. Forsyth County Animal Control does have tranquilizer guns, but animal control officers said they were not made aware of the incident until after the bear was shot. And even if they had come out, the Animal Control Director Tim Jennings said -- due to a matter of jurisdiction -- his officers aren't allowed to use tranquilizers unless granted permission by a state wildlife officer. If animal control were to tranquilize an animal, they have nowhere to keep it and no way to transport it.
"Unfortunately, the city doesn't have a lot of resources to be able to deal with animals," said Cunningham. "If we had let it stay in the woods, at some point, it is going to come back out. We might not be there before it gets hold of a kid, an animal, an adult or something. Then, we would have missed that opportunity from keeping someone from being hurt."
Since Friday, nearly a dozen bear sightings have been reported between Country Club and Robinhood roads. Police believe there may be two more bears still wandering in the northwest part of Winston-Salem, because several people had reported seeing three bears at one time.
The North Carolina Wildlife Resource Commission says bear sightings are not uncommon this time of year. In fact, during the spring and summer mating season, young male bears tend to wander, and anything from garbage to bird seed will attract them.
The bear population in North Carolina has nearly tripled since 1971, from 4,000 bears then to an estimated 11,000 bears in 2004.
"We still feel a little concerned about it, because there is another bear out here somewhere," said Kane.
