Six months after a state encon officer shot a mother bear and her two cubs in Old Forge, community members try to make sense of the killing
By Gwendolyn Craig
On an August day last year, two black bear cubs scrambled up a tree behind Old Forge Hardware in the town of Webb as a state environmental conservation officer shot their mother dead. One cub climbed back down the tree and the officer killed it, too. He grazed the second cub, but it fled back up into the boughs. The officer waited an hour and a half before he could safely take the final shots.
“I watched the whole thing,” said Webb Supervisor Bonnie Baker. “I watched baby bears screaming in trees.”
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These last excruciating hours of the bear trio known to frequent the hamlet of Old Forge were detailed in an incident report the Explorer received in early January from a Freedom of Information Law request placed in October.
The state Department of Environmental Conservation, which released the redacted records, stood by its decision to euthanize the bears, noting an escalating aggressiveness they showed toward humans.
But last summer’s public euthanization of the well-known animals led a number of people to ask whether the response was necessary, and what can be done to prevent such killing in the future. It’s something both the DEC and the town of Webb are working on for this upcoming tourist season, as bears are commonplace visitors there.
What’s in the report
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In the Adirondack Park, Hamilton and Herkimer counties saw the most black bear euthanizations in that time frame due to bear-human conflicts, 25 and 22 respectively. Old Forge is in Herkimer County.
The DEC uses a statewide Black Bear Response Manual as its technical guide, which in part classifies black bears and whether they are a risk to humans. A Class 1 bear is deemed a risk to humans and may be euthanized.
Many of these euthanizations do not make headlines, but residents and local officials watched the Old Forge bear trio stalked by visitors for photo opportunities. They watched them, and in some cases tried to protect them from encroaching crowds. And then the bears were killed downtown in view of spectators.
The shockwave caused the town to hold public meetings and consider a local law imposing hefty fines for feeding and harassing wildlife.
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To learn more about why the DEC determined the Old Forge bears should be killed, the Explorer filed a Freedom of Information Law request on Oct. 15 for any reports and communications of the incident. At first, the department said no such records existed.
The DEC later reopened the request and in January provided 40 pages, including the euthanization incident report. Some of the records were redacted, including the names of the officer and DEC officials. The DEC cited “unwarranted invasion of personal privacy,” “inter-agency or intra-agency materials” and “could endanger the life or safety of any person if disclosed,” as reasons for withholding certain information.
The DEC upheld the redactions in an appeal.
In addition to the incident report, the records show a handful of calls about the three bears leading up to Aug. 11. They range from accounts of the bears roaming the village, to the mother bluff charging people attempting to take photos of them at the local waste transfer station. None of the reports listed the bears as Class 1.
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But the DEC said that on Aug. 9, after receiving multiple reports from the public, staff determined the sow to be a Class 1. In follow-up interviews with the Explorer, DEC officials said the cubs were also considered Class 1.
Baker called the euthanizations “disheartening.” Just days prior, she had spent hours keeping people away from a tree they had climbed.
The fate of the bears was a decision the DEC had to make, she said. Baker didn’t have an opinion on whether it was right or wrong, but some have questioned whether the killings of the two cubs was warranted.
Multiple people contacted the DEC shortly after Aug. 11, asking for its justification, records show. DEC officials scheduled phone calls with them.
One member of the public asked why the DEC did not work with rehabilitators to save the cubs. That has been one of Mike Farmer’s questions, too. Farmer is the tourism director for the Town of Webb, which includes the hamlet of Old Forge.
“It’s our obligation to all wildlife, in this case in particular, to do what we can to preserve that wildlife, and I didn’t see that that was done,” Farmer said.
Baker is particularly frustrated by the people who crowded the bears for photos and hopes the town can pass a local law bolstering what the state already has in place against illegally feeding and harassing wildlife. State law notes a written warning for a first offense. A second offense could come with an up to $250 fine and up to 15 days in jail.
The town is considering heftier fines, a minimum of $1,000, for such human behavior. Baker expects the town board to take action on a law in the spring.
DEC officials said they welcome any help from towns on curbing such human behavior and promoted tenets for safe wildlife interactions.
DEC response
Upon release of the bear records, the DEC arranged interviews with the Explorer, DEC Region 6 Wildlife Biologist Andrew MacDuff and Jeremy Hurst, DEC game management section head.
MacDuff said the records did not show how he and other staff spent a day in late May going through the village, talking with property owners, checking electric fences “and trying to be proactive.”
John Koslosky, a Utica-based family law attorney who visits the Old Forge area often, captured the bears on video on Aug. 8, three days before they were shot. Attracted to the trash of Keyes Pancake House, Koslosky captured them getting zapped by an electric fence around the area. They ran off.
The bears were common visitors at Nick’s Lake Campground, looking for trash or a handout. And while some visitors would approach the bears at the waste transfer station, others were trying to drop off their trash and would come into contact with an angry mother bear.
In the euthanization report, the DEC officer said the mother bear growled and approached him when he first arrived on scene.
The DEC said euthanasia is a last resort in any wildlife situation, but as soon as there is a potential threat to human safety, MacDuff said “the path forward is clear.”
“I can safely say we continually review our experiences with bears, and periodically we’ll update our bear response manual to reflect that,” MacDuff said. “In this particular situation, we relied on that officer who’s a first responder to make that on-scene determination.”
MacDuff said they would have preferred a “more surgical” shot of the second cub, “but sometimes you’re not able to get a lethal shot the first time.”
DEC officials also said conditioning the bears to stay away from the village’s downtown and people would not work. Officials denied that was due to a lack of staffing at the department and in the Old Forge area. There would be no way to interact with cubs and provide aversive conditioning at every occurrence, officials said.
“These cubs were with that sow doing problematic behavior day after day,” said Jeremy Hurst, DEC Game Management Section Head. “What we’ve learned from aversive conditioning work over several decades is that it can provide temporary benefit to remove a bear from a specific spot for a short duration, and that duration can be helpful for a landowner to clean up a mess, get rid of their garbage, take down their bird feeder. But it’s not a long-term solution to change the bear’s behavior.”
Matthew Krug, director of environmental conservation officers at the Police Benevolent Association of New York State and an officer in the southern Adirondacks, has been advocating for more staff, most recently at a legislative budget hearing on Jan. 28. Last summer, Krug said, there were 260 environmental conservation officers statewide when the number was supposed to be 342. The officer who responded to the Old Forge bear incident, he said, was covering multiple counties.
Farmer is unconvinced by the DEC’s explanation that the cubs were trained to be a nuisance and could not be retrained.
Hurst said the cubs, which he believes were about 7 months old, were capable of living on their own. The DEC works with a couple of bear rehabilitators in the state, but officials said availability can be limited.
“It’s not general practice to rehabilitate bears,” Hurst said, “even if they’re orphaned for some reason.”
Editor’s note: This story was updated on Feb. 6 with information from the Police Benevolent Association of New York State.
People could greatly assist in these type of things NOT happening by leaving the bear ALONE! When they insist on becoming spectators and gathering to watch bears (and other wildlife) that is when “wild” animals become acclimated to humans, humans begin to get too close, and that is when wildlife/human encounters become more frequent and dangerous. Stay away and leave them alone!! Nosy people caused these killings–not DEC personnel!
I remember watching the bears at the dump in lime kiln. It was very good that the dump was closed. I wonder why these bears could not have been tranquilized + relocated to a wilderness area. Feeding wildlife is not good + should be discouraged.
I believe DEC did what was expected of them. However, in the future, it might be wise to “haze” animals marked for euthanization into the woods and perform the procedure out of the public eye. Euthanization in any manner is not pretty and fraught with complications.
If bear encounters are reported quickly – after/during the first offense – there are more options available to DEC, including direct hazing and possible relocation. But once animals are habituated to an area and its food sources, and have esatablished a daily “food route”, there isn’t much that can be done. If they stand any chance of avoiding euthanization in cases like this, they have to learn fear of humans immediately. But even hazing early on is no guarantee of success. And DEC staffing needs to be adequate to address emergency calls involving nuisance wildlife. Very unfortunate outcome here on several levels.
Tone deaf PR by the DEC let this incident blow up.
Should these bears have been shot? I can’t say. I wasn’t there. I can say that it is a shame that they were. I will also say that while DEC pulled the trigger, it was the community and it’s visitors that set these bears up for death. The visitors should have given the bears their space and left them alone. The residents and businesses did not do the work to deprive these bears of food sources. Had they, the bears would not have been regulars to the hamlet.
I live in Old Forge, have seen several bears killed by DEC here in town, once after officer trapped cubs in havaheart traps and watching the sow go ballistic shot her first then cubs with his shotgun. Hazing them? Several years ago a former police chief misloaded his shotgun gun and shot bear on a dumpster with a slug instead of the rubber pellets he had loaded first in the magazine, think that stirred onlookers up? Yup. DEC through mismanagement doesn’t have the man power to cover these so called “super” districts that have been established. We used to have 2 Encon officers that lived locally 25 years ago, now if you see one at all it’s very seldom. Problem need to be taught a fear of humans constantly
I agree. We need more officers if we want to literally live WITHIN the Park. Routine patrolling seems to be a thing of the past – even in high-usage areas.
I believe the D.EC.’s actions are likely based on saving money/manpower. Years back, nuisance bears were live-trapped and relocated regularly. That involves time (which equals dollars), and manpower which they are unquestionably short of. There were better options in this and many other cases, but instead, the easy (cheapest) one was chosen. Let’s hope the bad press from this serves as a lesson not only to the D.E.C. but also to folks who enable the bear’s panhandling.
Why a redacted report ? Something to hide……we know it’s not anything classified.
My guess is that the officer who shot the bears has taken enough abuse and shaming, and that DEC was trying to protect a man who was just doing his job.
How many stories is there going to be about this. Beargate!
Until people stop reading them.
People just don’t realize the problems they make by getting the bears used to humans. They are wild animals so keep them wild.
Our state constitution states that the area, and by extension the critters in question, fall under the “Forever Wild” clause. Let them stay wild…..forever.
Did they really need to be killed? Couldn’t mother and cubs been shot with a tranquilizing dart and relocated to a safer, distant location?
These bears were not “euthanized.” They were killed. Some might say murdered.
That officer should be FIRED. All he had to do was to have Animal Control come to tranquilize them to be relocated to another part of the ADK. It is not the bears fault that humans have encroached on their habitat and also act stupid around wild animals. I’ve hunted, fished and camped in the ADK for years . Bears had always there and never bothered us because they did not feel threatened. That officer had no business murdering that family. He needs to be mentally evaluated in order to continue working at his job.
And those who say that – would be wrong.
Thanks for the article. I read it all, it is disheartening how the bears were failed on several different levels.
The last time we were there, two summers ago, we were told that more people from down state or even out of state were buying homes and businesses. They spend their summers there and then leave. I mean Old Forge is almost the heart of the Adirondacks. Bear and human interactions are going to happen. The people who choose to live there, seasonal or not, need to accept this and learn to live with the bears.
Tourons need to learn to leave the bears alone. Specially mothers and their cubs. I know firsthand how exciting it is to see a bear and have it walk 50 feet away. But don’t follow it and surround it/them. Even if you don’t get hurt you might have just sentenced that bear to death.
On that fateful day, somebody should have intervened and dispersed the crowd. A local resident, the DEC officer…somebody. Just to give the bears a chance to get away.
The DEC officer should not have shot them in front of the crowd. Maybe they shouldn’t have shot them at all. Use an air whistle (those whistles mounted on a can of air) to scare them off. Then decide how to deal with them later.
I realize that the DEC is shorthanded. Perhaps the village can post more warning signs about not feeding, following, wildlife etc around the village. Form a wildlife watch committee to take complaints and disperse crowds, and such. Part of the joy of going to Old Forge is the wildlife viewing, but people need to know when enough is enough.
This is a sad story that probably happens more often than we think.
Until a child is killed or greatly injured in a campground will you change your tune. We love the Adirondacks and choose to live amongst wildlife and the beauty. Sometimes we have to use our brains when we see danger and act accordingly.
I’ll take “Things That Never Happened” for 1,000, Alex.
I think the adk is large enough that a place to relocate those bear that are far enough away from humans can be designated. There should be a plan in place before an encounter with the bear so they can be tranquilized and moved far far into the adk away from humans.
What bothers me the most about this article is the Cubs being shot. What a sad day.
Well this is just a sad story. My camp is not far from the incident. I understand euthanizing the adult but the cubs should have been taken to a wildlife rehab. Bears that young are not conditioned to the point that they represent a future problem anymore than any other bear. All bears are scavengers. I have decades of hunting experience with thousands of hours interaction with wildlife. This was handled about as well as the execution of Peanut the squirrel. DEC get your act together! Gov. Hochul prioritize the natural resources of the state!
The bear was probably an immediate threat to the people of the village. Imagine not euthanizing that sow, and then later that evening, it mauls a child! The DEC couldn’t afford that skeet shoot.
Sorry what was “excruciating” about the hours prior to the bears being killed? This story is written in a very strange way? It’s too bad they had to shoot them but where does this come from?
There’s a very disciplined lady on tiktok, who has been living peacefully with black bears for decades without a single incident or bit of harm to her or anyone because she reads the bears’ language and is a compassionate part of their lives. A bear cub uses his teeth to feel her sandal and toe, and uses a paw and teeth to gently remove a sandal, and run off with it, at which point Mama Bear tries to stop her baby from stealing the sandal, acknowledging that it belongs to the human lady ! Mama bear teaches respect for others, to all the human viewers. Some Humans have a lot to learn from the bears about decency towards other beings ! THERE IS NO JUSTIFICATION FOR ANTHROPOCENTRIC HUMANS TO ERADICATE BEARS !
PERIOD!