Bear attacks woman gardening

[sasquatch]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080807/od_nm/bear_dc;_ylt=ArogGHNEx1q8FJe3ABfXyn_tiBIF
VANCOUVER, British Columbia (Reuters) - A woman was recovering from bite wounds after she was mauled by a bear while gardening outside her house in a suburb of Vancouver on Wednesday, police said.

The 35-year-old woman was in the front yard of her house in Coquitlam, British Columbia, when the animal attacked her, apparently without provocation, neighbors and police said.

Neighbors who heard the woman's screams threw rocks at the bear to make it stop its attack. The animal was later shot and killed by a police officer.

[flvegan]

1. This is why handguns should be a mandatory gardening tool.

[Chan790]

2. handgun?

I never garden without my SPAS-14 and a belt of grenades.

[MrScorpio]

8. I find that the FN P-90 does a pretty good job

Compact, powerful and handy

[east texas lib]

3. Or a 45-70 Marlin lever action. Them there bars is tough!

:o

[sasquatch]

6. Nice post Colbert

:P

[HEyHEY]

11. I use one anyway, you should see the weeds tremble

[flvegan]

13. You Canadians and your gun violence.

:eyes:

[HEyHEY]

15. It's all those violent Canadian rappers

[flvegan]

19. Ah, c'mon fucking guy!

[Fran Kubelik]

4. anyone seen yvr girl?

:scared:

[HEyHEY]

12. She lives in a non- bear area.

[Lyric]

5. Shame on her for living where the bears live!

:sarcasm:

[u4ic]

7. The next day, a bear broke into someone's HOUSE

in the same city: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2008/08/07/bc-2nd-bear-attack.html

[HEyHEY]

14. a few blocks away - but that whole area is like that

That's where ole HEyHEY was raised. I used to play in the forrest non-stop - never got eaten!

[u4ic]

31. To the dismay of some DUers

:P

Yeah, I understand about the bear thing. I spent a couple of (unhappy) years in Ft McMoney, and bears wandered in all the time.

Here we have the occasional moose wander into the city. A few years back a cougar wandered in amongst the river valley and ended up in a residential area in the middle of the city.

[quakerboy]

9. This is why I can never move to Vancouver

I would have to compete with all the other bears for my wifes attention.

[HEyHEY]

10. The next day another one was shot after breaking into a house

By the way, I covered that story last week ;-)

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2008/08/07/bc-2nd-bear-attack.html?ref=rss

I grew up in that neighbourhood and bears are just a fact of life, especially on the north shore because it borders about 5000 kilometers of wilderness.
Often there are bears in my parents backyard, even though we are in the city. You just get used to them and try to be careful.

[tigereye]

16. how do you get used to bears in the backyard?

:scared: We just have groundhogs, thank goddess.




Do they come for the garbage cans, or what?

[HEyHEY]

18. In my folks case they are attracted by the garden and fruit trees

You get used to it cause mostly they come around at night or very early in the morning. You'll here a crack in the yard late at night and look out the window to see a yogi making a mess of the plum tree. Usually the reaction is to pour a glass of vino and watch them.
But yeah, you do need to be careful, it's important not to startle them. I always look all around before I get out of the car at night and such to make sure there are none around. Pff, and all inner city kids had to deal with was gangs!

[tigereye]

20. bears have no guns.... fortunately.

around here a bear in a yard is a pretty big deal, unless you are in the foothills or "mountains," such as we have them here in PA.


How's the sailing been?

[HEyHEY]

21. My dad sold his boat

So, no sailing for me anymore :-( really sucks.

[tigereye]

23. my dad has been collecting small sailboats to add to his windsurfer stash...

sorry to hear your dad sold his boat...


how are ya?

[HEyHEY]

27. good, thanks! You?

[fortyfeetunder]

25. Do bears come into YVR city?

Just wondering!

[HEyHEY]

26. On occasion it does happen

[Sisaruus]

30. bears napping

A bear took a nap under my back deck for a week this past winter. (I live in a Connecticut suburb and we are overrun with bears.)

[LeftyMom]

17. Lake Tahoe's like that.

Bears get into people yards, dig their trash if it's not locked down tight, etc. I've had to slam on the brakes to keep from hitting one as it crossed the road at night up there.

As long as you take the appropriate precautions (locking up your trash, not keeping food outside) the local dogs probably pose more risk.

[JBoy]

22. Just looking at the map, you can see it spells bear trouble.

http://maps.google.ca/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=2200+turnberry+lane,+coquitlam+bc&sll=49.31561,-122.79682&sspn=0.008575,0.022745&ie=UTF8&ll=49.318185,-122.862854&spn=0.137188,0.363922&z=12

On the side of a mountain, surrounded on 3 sides by bear condos.

[pokerfan]

24. Once had a cougar attack a woman six blocks from my house

She was running on a jogging path along the river. She was simply mistaken as prey.

[riverdeep]

28. Bears entering habitated areas should be taken seriously.

The problem is that people 'get used to them', and the bears become more and more acclimated to going into communities. This is just a delayed death sentence for the bears. Eventually, a bear will do something that humans don't appreciate, and then it's open season on bears.

Prevention should be the goal of every community vulnerable to bear intrusion. You can teach bears that they are not welcome. It saves bears and humans aggravation, and possibly their respective lives, in the long run.

Here is one way:



"Bear Shepherding involves teaching bears to recognize and avoid humans and our boundaries while educating people on bear conflict prevention."

http://www.beardogs.org/

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

29. what kind of garden was it that

grows women?

Eden?

[applegrove]

32. I hate bears.

[Dogtown]

33. Cryptic.

Why?

[applegrove]

34. Cause I've had a few "almost" encounters with them and knew of someone

who was killed by one. Never liked them after that. I don't wish them ill. But I don't want to see or hear about them attacking people. I wish people would just stay out of areas where there are bears. I hate hearing about maulings. Drives me nuts every summer.