A grizzly that was seen numerous times roaming the streets of Smithers and causing a stir on social media was recently caught and has been euthanized.
Sergeant Matthew Corbett with the BC Conservation Service said officers set up two traps on July 18 and finally trapped the bear on July 21.
He said the bear had to be destroyed.
"Once they get so habituated with humans and so into the non-natural food sources, there's not really anywhere we can move it to where it's not gonna seek that source out again," he said, adding this bear was tipping over four to five garbage cans per night.
Due to this incident, three households were charged under the Wildlife Act for leaving bear attractants out.
"We don't have any kind of bear-proof garbage cans, or in areas, maybe some of the lower income areas in town, they don't have garages and sheds that they can store their garbage in," Corbett said.
"And there's also nothing provided to these people for safe, attractive management as well. So, I know, speaking with some individuals when we charged people, we got reactions ranging from quite anger but also embarrassment and being sad that they're causing the bear's death and apologetic. So I think that there is a lot of people that care about the bears out there in the town, but our track record with the garbage management isn't showing that right now."
The Fur-Bearers, a non-partisan, registered charity, used freedom of information legislation to access data about where black bears are killed by the BCCOS annually, with the goal of helping communities make changes to reduce negative encounters, and ultimately deaths of black bears.
They ranked Smithers fourth in the province for the number of bears put down last year.
"It's mainly to do with people not picking fruit off their trees, and then when the fruit dries up in the fall last year, the bears were accessing garbage all over town," Corbett said.
