September 04, 2007
Tuesday PM

I read with interest the opinion of one reader endorsing not killing or trapping bears in the city and I completely disagree. I live off the Schoenbar bypass and last year when I arrived home from work I was met by a bear at my trash can. I tried all the tricks of making noise etc to get the bear to leave so I could get out of my car and go into my home---all to no avail! The bear leapt across the can and came straight at me! I called the local authorities who came out and anesthetized every tree in the forest behind my home---AND MISSED THE BEAR!

Last week, I woke up to noises in my kitchen at 4:45 a.m. To make a long story short, I discovered that a large sow with a cub had torn the screen off my kitchen window, opened the sliding window and had literally come INSIDE my kitchen where it ate peaches on my counter and ate and spilled a pot of cooking oil on my kitchen counter. The bear "spooked" and went BACK out my window causing further damage, getting away before myself and my significant other could get "locked and loaded" or the bear would be in that great forest in the sky as I write this.

I realize that I am originally from Texas but I look at it this way: If some conservationist wants to live with bears all over them--thern they should do so. When a tragic but inevitable accident occurs, they should suffer the consequences as they basically got what they asked for. Bears in the wild are NOT cute little "teddy bears"---if anyone had seen the demolition in my kitchen last week this would have been apparent!

Bears have a place in nature but it is not in town, and frankly I could care less if they were here before me or not. Ketchikan is a city, albeit a small one, yet a city. If I wanted to live next door to a bear and fight for my right to peaceful enjoyment of my home and property, I'd move to some remote island. Some people desperately need to get a life and get over it. Bears do not need to live along side humans. That idea is totally ridiculous in my judgement. My only wish is that our fish and game folks were better shots!

Sincerely,

Eileen Small
Ketchikan, AK

Received September 04, 2007 - Published September 04, 2007

About: "I have lived and worked in K-kan since 1998."

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