Spokesman Fig. Steve Addison says police were called to the eastern part of town around 11 a.m. for reports of a black bear. “We started watching it in the hope that it would find its way back to a safer place,” he wrote in an email. “Unfortunately, we had to shoot the bear… He had started coming in and out of the yards, approaching people and pets dangerously and walking in motion.” Addison says police contacted the BC Officer Conservation and Animal Control Service for help, but “they had not arrived yet when we had to kill the bear.” The BC Conservation Service confirmed that he did not attend, postponing questions to the Vancouver Police Department. A person close by told CTV News that he heard gunshots as he prepared to take her puppy out for a walk. A photo from the scene, which is just one block from the busy intersection of Hastings Street and Boundary Road, shows a yellow police tape blocking the intersection of Pender and Esmond streets. Although the location where the bear was shot is in Burnaby, it is close to the border with Vancouver. A social media post by another resident says the bear was spotted for 15 blocks by police before being shot. Proponents say the colder-than-average spring weather has reduced salmon farming this year, prompting more black bears to enter residential neighborhoods in search of food. On Saturday, Christine Miller of the North Shore Black Bear Society said CTV News residents should keep all food scraps away from their household rubbish and instead put them in organic bins, which are usually picked up earlier in the morning. . “If we could reduce the amount of unnatural food sources for them, they would tend to come back and eat grass and hopefully find berries soon,” said Miller, who added that keeping bears out of the garbage kept them alive. . “If a bear finds a lot of food available in the community, it will spend more and more time in residential areas,” Miller said. “And that usually has a very bad outcome for the bear.” With archives from Shannon Paterson and Meagan Gill of CTV News Vancouver
