Grant Ferris
Grey/Bruce Outdoors

Bears in bee hives, bears in the garbage, bears in the bakery, bears in the schoolyards, bears in downtown Owen Sound. Where and when is this going to end?

If you’ve been reading the Sun-Times, you know that the bear situation appears to be getting progressively worse in Bruce and Grey counties. Irate cottagers and farmers are telling understaffed local Ministry of Natural Resources personnel they have to do something. Queen’s Park’s solution is to tell communities they must handle the situation themselves, without breaking any laws that apply regarding discharging firearms or unlawful hunting. 

Big city dwellers might say that those who live in bear country must learn to cope but there are reasons why this is becoming increasingly difficult. First, our population is growing and so is the bear’s. Second, we have a transient population of tourists and weekenders, many who cannot or will not try to learn the bear facts regarding disposal of garbage. Thirdly, dogs are no longer allowed the freedom to run at large which would warn of or ward off transient bears. Forth, our population is becoming increasingly unarmed and controlled so that problem bears can get away with things that would formerly have sealed their fate. Add to this the government downloading of resource management to local communities and the area becomes ripe for animal control problems.

A hundred and fifty years ago, pioneer communities would have dogs to attack transient bears and if that failed, the troublesome bear would soon provide a warm bearskin rug and a lot of needed meat and fat. Much the same would happen to an unwary bruin that visited a first Nation community. In Europe, a gun-bearing population wiped out most of the bear population before the beginning of the twentieth century. Here, we value our wildlife populations and like to protect our heritage. Still, something must be done and with a major non-hunting federal park established on the Bruce, our bear problems may be just beginning.

The Ontario Sporting Dog Association think they can help. On May 7, OSDA president John Bell and Terry McBride with MNR Minister John Snobelen and members of his staff at Queen’s Park where they presented a proposal. The idea is for the MNR to issue a training licence for bear. Members of the Ontario Bear Hound Association (an affiliate of the OSDA) could use their hounds to drive bears away from areas where they have become a nuisance. The bears, say the OSDA, could be trained to avoid human habitation. Since there is no killing involved, the activity should not conflict with animal rights associations. If bears were chased away from public areas like campgrounds, they would locate in more remote areas, perhaps even return to the federal park “Current nuisance bear solutions,” according to the OSDA Spring Newsletter, “ often involve a baited trap set by the MNR and other authorized officials, which encourages visits from non-target bears and can even increase bear activity in an area.”
“With a legal training season MNR employees could contact bear hounds-men and request their help in treeing, identifying and subsequently relocating these nuisance bears.”

So how about it, Minister? Do you have a better idea? Local residents are becoming desperate and desperate people resort to desperate solutions. Let’s give the bear hound owners a chance before someone gets hurt or a lot of bears become bear rugs.