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Bear cubs on Kingslea safely removed from area

Updated at 11:17 p.m.: Greater Sudbury Police and conservation officers with the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry have safely trapped two bear cubs after police shot the mother bear earlier this morning.
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Police and conservation officers attempt to catch a tranquilized bear cub as it falls from a tree on Kingslea Court this morning. Photo by Heather Green-Oliver

Updated at 11:17 p.m.: Greater Sudbury Police and conservation officers with the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry have safely trapped two bear cubs after police shot the mother bear earlier this morning.  

 

Reporter Darren MacDonald, who was on the scene this morning, said the officer who shot the mother bear was visibly upset after having to fire five times with a shotgun to kill the animal.

He reports that residents in the neighbourhood were upset by what happened this morning, but said those he spoke with praised Greater Sudbury Police Service for their response to the situation.

 

More to come.

 

Original story

 

A witness is angered this morning after he says Greater Sudbury Police shot a bear on Kingslea Court after conservation officers had tranquilized the animal.

Staff Sgt. Craig Maki of the Greater Sudbury Police Service confirmed a mother bear has been shot on the street just off Barrydowne Road. Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry conservation officers and police are trying to remove one bear from a tree now. One cub has been trapped.

NorthernLife.ca has a reporter on site.

According to a witness, police and conservation officers had chased a mother and cub up a tree on Kingslea Court. Rolly Corbeil, who lives on Holland Road around the corner, said he and his adult son watched from their parked vehicle as conservation officers tranquilized the mother.

 
He said four officers, two holding shotguns were on hand, as well as two conservation officers.


The mother fell from the tree about 25 feet to the ground, Corbeil said, jumped to its feet and one officer shot it “three or four times with the shotgun.”


“The bear was trying to get up and the officer walked over and just stood there watching,” he said. “It felt like about two minutes he just stood there. And then my son yelled at him, ‘For Christ sake, shoot it,’ ” Corbeil said.

“By then, my son was crying. We’re both hunters. If you’re going to shoot an animal, you don’t let it suffer like that.”

Other bystanders told a NorthernLife.ca reporter that after the bear fell, it jumped to its feet and seemed to charge at the officers.

Corbeil said the police told him to move on, which he did, saying they heard two more shots as they drove away.

Maki said he could provide no details about the circumstances of the shooting. He did say conversation and police officers are trying to get a cub out of the same tree from which the mother fell.

This story will be updated as more information comes available.


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