Angered by deaths of bears

I am extremely angry and tremendously saddened by the needless death of yet another bear last week.

The circumstances of this incident are particularly heartbreaking.

Camp Sudaca should be a place where children are taught how to co-exist with nature, which should include learning to keep food out of reach of wildlife and removing all garbage from the area.

However, in this case, the mother bear and her three cubs came on site because they had found a human food source and they were eating this food.

We all know that the bears have very few blueberries to sustain them this year, so they were obviously very attracted to this food.

When the staff and children spotted the bear family, they should have just stayed in their safe place until the bears went away, thus using the situation as an illustration to the youngsters why food should be put away properly.

Instead, someone called the police and the bear was “dispatched,” sending absolutely the wrong message to those 90 kids. Once again, a bear paid the price for human carelessness.

In stark contrast to this sad story, last week also brought a positive development regarding the bear issue.

Laurentian University is currently replacing its old garbage cans with bear-proof garbage containers to prevent bears from coming into contact with people.

I applaud the university’s proactive and humane approach. I sincerely hope that we, the City of Greater Sudbury, will follow their lead and take steps to address our own garbage problem before more of these magnificent animals lose their lives.

Sally Lesk
Sudbury