(Black Press Media file)

(Black Press Media file)

‘Very bad idea’: Wildlife centre asks drivers to stop feeding bear on Vancouver Island

Centre warns that a fed bear could become a dead bear

  • Aug. 18, 2019 12:00 a.m.

A wildlife rescue centre on Vancouver Island is urging people to not feed the bears.

The warning comes from the MARS Wildlife Rescue Centre received reports that people have been feeding a local black bear along Hwy. 4 while stopped for roadwork near Kennedy Lake on the way to Tofino.

The Comox Valley-based rescue centre said feeding the bear was “a very bad idea.”

“Feeding the bear conditions it to accept food from people, so other people are at risk of an attack when they refuse food to the bear,” the centre said in a Facebook update.

“Feeding the bear is putting the bear at high risk of having to be euthanized because it’s become a problem bear or it has attacked someone.”

ALSO READ: Woman receives stitches after black bear attack south of Campbell River

ALSO READ: Two cases of feeding bears being investigated in B.C.

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ALSO READ: Bear won’t be euthanized after biting toddler at B.C. zoo


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