Comments about ‘The bear truth: Utah's black bears pose little danger to humans’

Personally, as an outdoorsman, seeing bears is truelly a joy and its also pretty rare. So when the bears get enough courage to begin coming into camps where there are little kids playing, it can be scarry for a parent.

The tragedy that occured in AF Canyon a couple years ago is a prime example. This problem bear was reported as it had all ready attacked another campsite. The DWR did nothing... Then the 11-year old was killed. Yes, fatilities might be extremely rare, but this incident was recent enough, and the public remembers the basic "I don't care" attitude by the division so they took it into their own hands. Having bears aggresivly approach campers not leaving when spooked is reason enough to shoot if DWR shows slow response as they have in the past.

Yes, a change of attitude must take place to avoid this again, but a change in action by the division must also take place. The bear numbers in Utah are rocketing so I imagine this will continue to happen as bears are more frequently seen in their habitat.

cowboy mentality reigns supreme and a lot of the time people will take an extreme action against something just because they don't WANT to be bothered by it, not because they ARE bothered by it. Maybe a lot of these bears were simply doing what bears do and the people involved deemed them dangerous because they happened to be in the same area at the same time. I know I sound harsh, but I've noticed this kind of attitude in Utah time and time again.

I spend as much time as possible hiking, camping and exploring backcountry of Idaho, Alaska, Wyoming and Montana and I enjoy seeing bears. I have seen dozens of them (both the black and the grizzly varieties) and none have yet been a threat to me whatsoever. I am not at war with bears and they are not at war with me but I can't say about Utah bears but I imagine they are about the same. I often carry a firearm (large caliber handgun) when I am in the wild for self protection but I have never used it, so far. I carry a gun because a friend of mine was mauled by a female grizzly bear in Montana a few years ago when he accidently came between the mother and her cub. The bear bit him a few times and then left and he received a few dozen sutures and some antibiotics. He knows he was very lucky and is more careful now and like me, he also carries a handgun when in the wild. Neither of us have any confidence in pepper spray for too many reasons to explain here.

I don't think it has anything to do with "cowboy mentality."

In almost every report, the bears were coming into camp. In most cases, precautions were taken to scare the bears away which they didn't. I don't think shooting the bear is the first option available to the campers and its unfortunate it happened. Bear sitings are becoming much more frequent with the number of bears rising. I saw 7 black bear this year while hunting which was very abnormal. I have seen bears before hunting, but only a couple over the last 3 years. So people need to be more educated and aware that the posibility is rising of seeing a bear.

Put yourself in the shoes of the people who shot these bears. If a bear wandered into your camp and didn't leave after scare tactics, what would you have done? It's easy to be arm chair quarterbacks from the comfort of your home and the anonymity of the internet.

up here in oregon we have more black bears then any other lower 48. so we can shoot 3 a year. so i do just that. ummm taste good. it also fires up the greenies. ummm i love that!