Sask. RCMP kill bear in Lumsden after attempts to capture it fail
Saskatchewan RCMP say their officers killed a bear that made its way into Lumsden on Thursday, after attempts to trap and relocate it, with the help of conservation officers, were unsuccessful.
An RCMP spokesperson said the police force first became aware of the bear being inside town limits on Wednesday.
On Thursday evening, RCMP got a report the bear was in a tree in what they described as "a high-traffic residential area."
Officers determined here was "an imminent safety risk," and the animal was killed, RCMP said.
The RCMP spokesperson said police were in communication with the Saskatchewan Conservation Officer Service throughout Thursday, but there were no conservation officers on site when the bear was shot.
"Our officers don't have the equipment or the training to tranquilize or relocate wildlife," the RCMP spokesperson said.
A spokesperson for the province's Ministry of Corrections, Policing and Public Safety said RCMP had jurisdiction to euthanize the bear.
When dealing with problem bears, responding officers assess each situation to determine the best approach with public safety as the top consideration, the provincial spokesperson said.
After a trap set failed to capture the bear, it was "mobile and not contained," so "chemical immobilization/relocation would not have been a viable option in this case, even if conservation officers had been able to reach the scene in time," the spokesperson wrote.
Lumsden Mayor Bryan Matheson said the town office put out a warning about the bear on social media, which said RCMP and conservation officers had been notified.
Matheson said the hope was to capture the bear and release it outside of Lumsden, which is about 30 kilometres northwest of Regina.
"I know that they were trying to bait and trap the bear to move him. He was not taking the bait, and so they decided for public safety that it would be put down," Matheson said.
"I'm disappointed that we weren't able to capture the bear and move him, but that's what happens sometimes. The bear didn't co-operate."
People in a local Facebook group expressed outrage about a photo circulating on social media of two RCMP officers posing with the dead bear in the bed of a pickup truck.
The RCMP spokesperson said they are aware of the photo and are addressing it.
Dorothy Wilson, a former Lumsden resident, heard about the bear being killed after people began posting about it in the local Facebook group. She says she, and many others in the Facebook group, were "disappointed, shocked, actually upset" by the incident.
"I mean, being that it was a young bear, I think they could have handled the situation much differently," she said.
Wilson said she understands the bear's presence in Lumsden created some concern for children and pets, but she wishes the bear had been tranquilized and taken out of town into its own habitat.
She also doesn't understand why no conservation officers were on site when the bear was killed.
"I've never ever heard of any animal in the city being shot. They've always been tranquilized and removed over to a place that's better for them," Wilson said.
