Women who fed bears on trial in Lincoln County

[depakid]

Karen Noyes of Yachats feeds a black bear some grapes. Noyes is on trial in Newport, charged with harassing wildlife and endangering other people.
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NEWPORT - When Dena Pickner awoke to a commotion at her Yachats house last June, she expected to find a raccoon. Instead, she climbed out of bed and saw a black bear coming through her dog door. "His head was stuck and he couldn't get out," Pickner told those in a court room at the Lincoln County Courthouse here this morning. "He grunted, backed up and took the dog door with him."

Two weeks later, the black bear was dead, one of four shot to death in a four-week period last summer in Yachats. Now a Yachats woman is on trial for feeding the bears - and allegedly putting herself and her community in harm's way. Karen Noyes faces four counts of chasing and harassing wildlife and five counts of recklessly endangering another person. Each carries a maximum penalty of one year in prison and a $6,250 fine.

Noyes insists she's done nothing wrong.

"I feed bears; it's not illegal" said Noyes in a telephone interview before the trial. "Fish and Game has made a big deal out of this. They have made up their minds that bears are dangerous." Noyes, 61, said she started feeding the bears several years ago when a large one showed up as she fed the birds. "It scared me. Then I thought 'why should I feed them and not him?'"

One summer, she said she fed as many as 25 of the animals on a regular basis. "Right now, I've got a half a dozen," she said. "They are perfectly safe. They are timid and really sweet." At least until they are hungry. Last summer, Noyes went on vacation. When she returned, a bear broke her window. "He was not doing it maliciously," she said. "He was knocking on the garage door and accidentally broke the window."

Noyes called Fish and Wildlife looking only, she said, for help in getting the bear to leave. But Tami Wagner, the biologist who took her call, said Noyes was scared.

And she wasn't the only one.

More: http://www.oregonlive.com/news/index.ssf/2009/05/women_who_fed_bears_on_trial_i.html

Sadly, she seems not to have heard the old saying in these parts: "a fed bear is a dead bear."

[marmar]

1. In their effort to do good, people do some incredibly stupid things....

n/t

[sandnsea]

2. Well goddammit anyway

I wondered why there were so many bear shootings last year. Aargh, I've got nothing printable to say.

[depakid]

7. Last year was nuts along the coast

We couldn't figure out why there were so many problem bear stories and campground mauradings. Perhaps things like this were one factor.

[sandnsea]

10. A lot of it was right here

I don't remember hearing about the bears in other areas as much as I did north of Florence up to Yachats. I know we have bears all over the place, but if you ignore them they'll leave. I couldn't figure out why people were feeling a need to shoot them all of a sudden. Well, now I know, at least for a good number of them.

[Auggie]

3. That woman is damn lucky her face wasn't ripped off

[sandnsea]

4. Others will use this to justify shooting any bear

That's what really pisses me off. These rogue bears will be added to a list, and not everybody will bother to find out which ones were fed human food and which weren't.

[havocmom]

6. Idiot woman in mountains above Tucson fed bears there

and a friend of mine's niece had her butt, legs, shoulder ripped to shreds because the bears had become to unafraid to shake down people. The young lady almost died and had a LOT of surgeries. She was well versed in how to behave in bear country and was in her tent (no food anywhere near) when she was attacked. The wildlife people said she had done everything right. But the bears had been trained to equate humans with food because some twit fed them.

I think 11 bears died in that area in the months around then. All because some stupid spoiled brat of a woman thought it was fun to feed ice cream to bears on her deck. Personally, I was in favor of shooting her at that time.

Like they say, a fed bear is a dead bear.

[Double T]

5. This woman is a total idiot.

Bears are powerful wild animals that need to be kept at a distance and respected. Noyes has actually put this bear's life in jeopardy.

[virginia mountainman]

8. I had a neighbor that did that...

Scary Stuff, called the Dept of Fish and Game, they had a talk with her, but still one morning, we had two bears down at the school bus stop!!!

For a long while, me and another neighbor, who had kids, took turns, watching over our kids, because of this woman. The bears, tried to get into the back of my old Ford Explorer one night, I had some trash in the back to haul to the dump, left all kinds of BIG foot prints on the dusty vehicle.

After the Fish and Game folks talked to her, she stopped, but it certainly upset my wife.

And worried the kids. Luckily the Bears have not caused any problems since, but last year She was seen with cubs.

[Cleita]

9. I never fed bears, but I don't have the fear of them most tourists have.

They are mostly timid and if you give them their space, and like most wild life, they give you yours. It's when the tourists are allowed to harass them that they start getting mean. A bear that has been shot but survives bear hunting season is especially mean. I wonder why.

[customerserviceguy]

11. Too bad she couldn't have just been a crazy cat lady instead

Bears can really make life in the boondocks dangerous.

[kestrel91316]

12. That woman is one prime, Class A dumbass. Way to go. Teach the bears

to associate humans with good food, beg, and break into homes.

STOOPID.

[depakid]

13. One of the comments under Oregonian article describes the problems that she caused

p front Vicky Prince is my cousin. My family has lived there since the early 70's.

There has never been a bear problem before. For close to forty years, that I know of, no bears have created an issue with anyone living in that area, until recently. Wild bears acted like wild bears and did what bears do. They were there, we saw their footprints and their scat in the forest, but they never once presented a problem, until they had grown accustomed to being fed by a human who treated them like pets instead of the wild things that they are. When she left town, the bears were hungry and then thought that people equaled a food source.

If she had not been feeding the bears, illegal or not, they would have been behaving like bears and not bothered anyone while she was away. Whether or not it's illegal to feed bears, I can't say. But I can and I will say it's complete idiocy. Unless this woman plans to live forever and feed her pet bears forever, she can't possibly believe this is going to have a good outcome.

The bears did significant damage to my cousin's farm. In a world of factory farms and corporate animal cruelty, she is a stand out, stand up entrepreneur. She could ill afford to absorb the losses caused by misinformed bears expecting humans to be a natural safe and available food source.

I had thought that everyone knew it was a bad idea to feed the bears. I was wrong. It's not the bear's fault, they had been habituated by someone who clearly proved Einstein's theory of stupidity. He thought the universe and human's capacity for stupidity were infinite. Clearly he had it right about the human part. Too bad for the bears, for all practical purposes, they're broken now. You can't unscramble eggs and they'll never be wild bears again.