were recently spotted<\/a> along Highway 6 between Nelson and Ymir.<\/p>\nOne yearling, which had a a deformity or injury to the leg, was also put down by the BCCOS on August 12. <\/p>\n
\u201cOver the past several weeks, the BC Conservation Officer Service and the BC Wildlife Branch received multiple reports of grizzly bears frequenting the Nelson area,\u201d said BCCOS\u2019s social media statement.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe BCCOS and the BC Wildlife Branch have monitored this sow and her offspring for several years and has worked proactively with the community to reduce human-wildlife conflicts through attractant management,\u201d the statement said. <\/p>\n
Back in 2023, the mother and her previous set of cubs were relocated to reduce public safety risks, according to the BCCOS.<\/p>\n
In a statement on July 24, the BCCOS said there were no current concerns for the bear family\u2019s well-being and that the yearling\u2019s injury was already a year old.<\/p>\n
However, more recently \u201cthe sow was exhibiting food-conditioned behaviour and a significant loss of fear of people, including repeatedly accessing residential properties and non-natural food sources such as fruit trees and barbecues, and regularly remaining in close proximity to people.<\/p>\n
\u201cGiven the bear\u2019s extensive food-conditioning and increasing comfort in residential areas, a second relocation was not considered a viable management option by the BC Wildlife Branch. An injured bear associated with this group was also dispatched under the recommendation of the BC Wildlife Vet.\u201d<\/p>\n
The BCCOS said that these wildlife response decisions were made in consultation with wildlife biologists from the Ministry of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe recognize this news will be upsetting for many people,\u201d the statement added. \u201cThe dispatching of any bear is an outcome that conservation officers, wildlife biologists, community partners, and residents work hard to prevent, and these decisions are never made lightly.\u201d<\/p>\n
Indeed, many people in the area were shocked and upset to hear the news of the euthanization of the yearling. <\/p>\n
The incident has received backlash on social media and initiated a rally, which took place on Victoria and Stanley Street, on Aug. 13, to protest the decision to euthanize the bears. <\/p>\n
Protestors held signs that read \u201cwe can co-exist,\u201d \u201cshame on Nelson\u201d and \u201cstop the killing of bears.\u201d <\/p>\n
Katie Graves, founder of the non-profit Ursa Project Society, a bear advocacy group, held the rally. Her non-profit organization promotes the co-existence between humans and bears. <\/p>\n
Graves says she saw a lot of different emotions at the protest. <\/p>\n
\u201cThere was a range of emotions from people who were feeling absolute sadness, despair, to anger and innovative ideas. People saying, \u2018what can we do? How can we fix this?’\u201d Graves said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis protest showed the amount of people who feel the same way and share in this absolute disdain for how things have been handled,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The City of Nelson also wants to remind residents to do their part with cohabitating with wildlife. These actions include picking fruit from one\u2019s property, and securing garbage and removing attractants to reduce bears entering residential areas. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe City has been helping our community by installing bear-resistant garbage bins, removing fruit trees from City-owned land, delivering public education programs and providing tools such as the FoodCycler to help reduce food waste and wildlife attractants,\u201d the statement from the City of Nelson reads. <\/p>\n
Graves says more needs to be done and each incident should be taken into account individually and by a case-by-case module.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat the BCCOS is not considering, is the public outcry from them killing them, which is far greater than what they are seeing in their report calls.\u201d <\/p>\n
Graves wants more transparency within the BCCOS and their reasons for euthanizing the bear. This is something she sees as the only solution.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need transparency within the conservation. They work for us and we pay their salaries,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bear cub and mother put down in Nelson Published 4:32 pm Friday, August 14, 2026 By Emma Bolzner\/Nelson…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":858643,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194299],"tags":[903,49,48,249267,87674],"class_list":["post-858642","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-surrey","tag-british-columbia","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-kootenay","tag-surrey"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/858642","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=858642"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/858642\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/858643"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=858642"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=858642"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=858642"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}