Friday, September 23, 2011

Bear mystery meat?

The Press Herald reported this morning about an unusual occurrence in Portland, in which a bear was spotted "acting strangely" (WMTW) in the East Deering area, and was consequently shot by game wardens. WMTW also reported on the incident: http://www.wmtw.com/r/29276769/detail.html. Both sources declined to show photos of the dead bear, improving my morning immensely.
Black bear killed in Portland
The bear is initially spotted in a tree on Oregon Street early this morning.
From staff reports

PORTLAND — Officers of the Maine Warden Service shot and killed a black bear today around 7 a.m. in the woods off Veranda Street in the East Deering neighborhood.

Portland police reported the treed bear to the Wardens Service around 4:30 a.m. Wardens initially tried to tranquilize the bear, but were unable to, according to Portland police Lt. Jim Sweatt.

"It was getting to be 7 o'clock and you don't want school buses and firearms on the scene," Sweatt said.

The bear initially was spotted in a tree on Oregon Street, a residential area, before climbing down and running off, Sweatt said.

The wardens service said the bear weighed around 120 pounds. The hide is being sent to the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife so researchers can determine the bear's sex and age and other factors.

The meat will be distributed to soup kitchens.

Source: http://www.pressherald.com/news/Black-bear-killed-in-Portland.html
Not so sure about the decision to send the meat to the soup kitchens, unless the bear wasn't really "acting strangely," and was just a normal-acting bear that it was safer and more convenient to shoot.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Back in April of this year, a black bear found its way from Connecticut to downtown Poughkeepsie, New York, to a tree in a small residential street.

The wildlife people were called in; it took more tranquilizer than they had anticipated, (not surprising given the health of this bear), but, in the end, they tranquilized the bear, and transported it to the Catskills.

Ironic, isn't it - the way people think that all of New York is New York City - and how Maine is supposed to be "earthy," but they could deal with the bear humanely in a large urban area and not here.

Michelle Souliere said...

The city of Portland seems to have a shoot-first policy when it comes to large wildlife. It's happened consistently here, usually to moose. This is the first time I can remember having a bear wander into town.