Group gathers support in hopes of helping injured black bear

The argument as to whether or not to rehabilitate an injured black bear named Russell, who was first spotted back in September just west of Calgary, is about to get another audience.

A group is hoping to gather enough support to change policy at the provincial level.

Russell has an injured back leg and at the moment nothing can be done to help him because of a current policy in place in the province.

Lisa Dahlseide, a wildlife biologist, says the policy doesn’t allow black bears and other large animals to be rehabilitated and she thinks there is no argument to not allow the animals the proper care.

“Less than two-per-cent of rehabilitated bears do become involved in human conflict and that’s the same statistic for wild bears and the reason is because there’s only problem people and not problem bears,” she said.

A public forum is scheduled for Friday night from 6:00 to 9:00 p.m. at the Redwood Meadows Community Centre. The goal of the meeting is to raise the public’s awareness on the current policy and to get a petition signed for a policy change.

“It’s not a law, banning the rehabilitation, it’s just a policy, so policies can easily change and the government is recognizing that public perception is changing in Alberta and that the majority of people do want animals rescued and rehabilitated,” adds Dahlseide.

The petition will be brought to the legislature at the end of February by Dr. David Swann, and Dahlseide is hoping the government will act quickly on a policy change.

“We want this commitment for black bears before April 1, when the black bear hunt starts, the spring black bear hunt, inevitably, it will orphan bear cubs and the policy in Alberta is to kill all orphan bear cubs,” she says.

Dahlseide hopes a change for black bears will eventually lead to a change for all animals in the province.