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Dangerous Bear News For The End Of The Millenium - Page 4

© Gerald Eugene Smith

I commend this woman's obvious courage and cool presence of mind. She was able to save her life under circumstances where I think most men would have lost theirs, whether because they were too shocked to respond soon enough, or they didn't have the gun ready to fire, or they failed to shoot the bear in a vital spot because they were too panic-stricken to aim properly. What I CANNOT commend, is this woman's downright weird logic that the Canadian bears "are not so bad". She herself knows from personal experience just how deadly they can be, and she most certainly had a really CLOSE call! I think her opinion reflects the all-too-common attitude of Canadian wildlife officials. They have made virtually inaccessible reliable information on bear attacks in Canada. It is only, as happened in the Liard incident, where there were too many witnesses and it could not be kept from the media, that they are even willing to admit anything happened. They certainly won't admit anything might be wrong. They seem to think that as long as they personally havn't been eaten, that everything is just rosy. It is as if you were at a beach resort, talking to a life-guard, and you were to be told that of course they really haven't had any significant problems with sharks. A surfer was killed and eaten recently, and the life guard almost lost his leg to a tiger shark, but was able to harpoon the beast before it got him. If you go swimming, you have a really good chance of surviving, so be of good cheer and have fun. Wouldn't that make YOU feel really good about going into the water?

I have tried to contact this woman, but as with other cases where I have attempted to E-Mail Canadian wildlife people, both the name and E-Mail address proved untraceable. Maybe I am simply being a little paranoid, but I sometimes wonder why... I wanted to ask this woman just what she think would have happened to her if she had been unarmed (the current policies of the Canadian government make it difficult for private individuals to carry guns for protection in the forest) or if instead, it had happened to an unprotected family out for a hike in the woods? Take warning from this incident! If you go into the deep woods of central to northern British Columbia, you had better go prepared. It doesn't matter if you have done so for ten years and never had problems with the bears, you had better be prepared for that one exception to the rule.

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