Jun 08, 2008
Permalink 09:40 am, Mark Bonokoski / General, 257 words
Bear Facts
(Sunday, June 8)
Some residents of the Toronto 'burb of Pickering woke up the other morning to find a black bear in their back yard, all which forced two elementary schools to go into lockdown until the bruin was taken out with a tranquillizer gun.
Welcome to the club.
Those of us who live a little further north of Toronto — and you don't have to go far — have experienced the same thing.
A year ago a black bear cub wandered through our property near Bancroft, all which had Arthur the Airedale going crazy and us going, “Oh, oh, where's mama bear?”
The cancellation of the spring bear hunt years ago by the Ontario government has a great deal to do with this, despite the fact ministry officials have tried to write off the Pickering incident as simply a matter of a bear following a creek path a little too far south.
Hell, if the bear has gone any further south, his hat would be floating in Lake Ontario.
And this bear was no cub. He stood six-and-a-half feet tall, and was estimated to be four years old.
In other words, he was an urban bear. He didn't just happen to wander down from Algonguin Park.
Our minister of logs and frogs, Donna Cansfield, is from the great bush country known as Etobicoke, another Toronto 'burb.
Perhaps she will now see the merit of bringing back the spring bear hunt.
Lock and load. We can only hope.
http://blog.canoe.ca/moosecountry/2008/06/08/bear_facts
G