On Sep 3, 11:00 pm, Mike Vandeman wrote:
On Mon, 3 Sep 2007 12:00:50 -0600, "Ist-e Mundus, Furia bundus"





wrote:

"Mike Vandeman" wrote in message
.. .
What crime did the bear commit, that it deserves to die?! She was only
defending her cubs!

Mike

http://www.komotv.com/news/9538012.html:

Black bear attacks bicyclist in park

Story Published: Sep 2, 2007 at 4:14 PM PDT

Story Updated: Sep 3, 2007 at 7:33 AM PDT

By KOMO Staff

Watch the story
NEAR OLLALA, Wash. -- A man was attacked by a bear while mountain
biking in the Banner Forest Heritage Park just before noon on Sunday,
according to South Kitsap Fire and Rescue officials.

Spokesman Ron Powers said a 51-year-old Port Orchard man was biking
with his two dogs alongside him when the dogs ran ahead and around the
bend, then started barking fiercely. The man turned the bend and saw
the dogs were barking at a bear.

Powers said the bear immediately charged at the man, who tried to use
his bike to shield himself from the animal. But the bear managed to
injure the man's arm, back, neck and ear before he was able to get
back on his bike and ride away.

Down the path, the injured man ran into other mountain bikers, who
called 911.

The man was conscious and alert when he was taken to St. Joseph
Medical Center in Tacoma. The unidentified man is in serious
condition, but is expected to recover.

One of the man's dogs is still missing. It is not known whether the
dog suffered injuries during the attack. The second dog is said to be
OK.

Officials evacuated the park and shut it down in order to search for
the bear. Powers said if the bear is found, officials plan to kill it.
Officials said crews will search through the night until the bear is
found.

Another bicyclist who was at the park on Sunday told authorities he
saw mother bear and two cubs while riding on the trail.

Powers said Sunday's attack is a freak accident, stating black bears
rarely attack humans and, unless provoked or threatened, will run
away. The man or the dogs may have appeared as a threat to the bear,
who may have been protecting her cubs, Powers said.

Area resident Teri Nelson agrees, while bears are not uncommon at the
park, she didn't expect them to be aggressive.

"Attacking somebody would make me have second thoughts about walking
through this forest by myself," she said. "It's pretty scary."
--
I am working on creating wildlife habitat that is off-limits to
humans ("pure habitat"). Want to help? (I spent the previous 8
years fighting auto dependence and road construction.)

Please don't put a cell phone next to any part of your body that you are
fond of!

How do you know it was defending cubs? The article only says "may have
been", and that there was a report of a bear with two cubs. No guarantee it
was the same bear as "bears are not uncommon at the park". There you go
leaping to conclusions again, reaffirming your status as the primo number
one twit-extraordinaire on usenet.

It's a well-known fact that black bears don't attack humans, except to
defend their cubs. Do you think it was offended by the color of his
outfit?!

That bear was probably startled and surprised by the combination of
dogs and human on bicycle. It made a panicked decision to attack
likely based on something it was tryinig to protect. It certainly
does not sound like it was looking for trouble, and it probably would
make some effort to avoid this situation again (bears don't like
confrontation any more than you do).

Black bears, like most bears, will also attack a human (or other
possible competitor) to defend a cache of food, be it natural or
derived from human sources. Nonetheless, in most locations, including
national parks, authorities will rarely, if ever, remove a bear for
defending either cubs or food caches. The reasoning, which I believe
to be valid, is that, unless the bear attacks because he/she
specifically identifies humans as a food source (either because they
carry food or because they could *be* food), the bear then represents
no further danger beyond what would normally be expected. Bears who
behave in this way do not typically repeat attacks, and the original
attack can be boiled down to either stupid human tricks or unfortunate
happenstance. In this case, it counds like the latter occurred, and
it would have been unpreventable.

In this case, Mike is right. Unless there is some evidence that the
bear intended to make a meal of the biker, and based on the story it
certainly does not sound like it, there is no compelling reason to
kill it. It should be left alone. Dogs should be leashed, ample
signs should warn of bear presence, and bikers should do so at their
own risk.

Bruce Jensen