{"id":911639,"date":"2026-09-27T13:34:55","date_gmt":"2026-09-27T13:34:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/911639\/"},"modified":"2026-09-27T13:34:55","modified_gmt":"2026-09-27T13:34:55","slug":"squamish-man-uses-motion-activated-zombie-to-scare-bears-away-from-garbage-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/911639\/","title":{"rendered":"Squamish man uses motion-activated zombie to scare bears away from garbage"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Squamish, B.C., homeowner is using a motion-activated Halloween decoration to scare bears away from his garbage bins.<\/p>\n

Stephen Fryer has been dealing with bears constantly in the Brackendale neighbourhood, about 50 kilometres north of Vancouver.<\/p>\n

“They’re around us every single day,” Fryer said.<\/p>\n

Officials say animals are looking for food<\/a> at lower elevations, after drought and wildfires at higher elevations have reduced their food sources. Fryer is one homeowner who is trying a creative way to keep the bears out of his garbage.<\/p>\n

He stores his bins outside, as he does not have a garage, and the bears often tip the bins to get inside.<\/p>\n

“The garbage, the handles have been like chewed off \u2014 not ripped off, chewed off, because they’re trying to get into it,” Fryer said.<\/p>\n

\"Using<\/p>\n

Using a hook, Fryer reinforced the bins with a strap to his house to prevent the bears from tipping his bins. He does not have a garage and said the bears have tried to tear off his organic garbage bin. (Alanna Kelly\/CBC)<\/p>\n

Fryer decided to reinforce the bins to the side of his house with a bolt and strap \u2014 but that didn’t work either.<\/p>\n

“One of them finally figured out how to rip it out of the wall and pulled the … I-hook out of the wall and off the strap,” Fryer said.<\/p>\n

His wife had asked for the Halloween decorations to be set up in September, and that’s when Fryer got an idea to put a motion-activated zombie on top of the garbage bins.<\/p>\n

“It absolutely scared the bear to the point where it it peed itself,” Fryer said.<\/p>\n

Surveillance video shows a burly black bear sniffing the bins. Moments later, the zombie lets out a scream and pops up.<\/p>\n

“Another one came by, and it went off,” Fryer said.<\/p>\n

Since the zombie was installed, the bears have been deterred.<\/p>\n

“As funny as that is, it’s totally worked,” Fryer said.<\/p>\n

\"Fryer<\/p>\n

Fryer said he believes a fed bear is a dead bear, and wanted to prevent them from getting into his garbage bins. (Alanna Kelly\/CBC)<\/p>\n

More than 30 bears killed<\/p>\n

In Squamish, 90 tickets have been issued in connection with the wildlife attractant bylaw<\/a>, which includes leaving garbage out and not picking up fruit from fallen trees.<\/p>\n

“The number of complaints we’re getting is pretty high each day,” said Sgt. Chris Doyle with the BCCOS’s Sea-to-Sky zone.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A total of 33 black bears were killed by BCCOS in 2025. In the first seven months of 2026, 33 bears have been killed. (Alanna Kelly\/CBC)<\/p>\n

The BCCOS said more bears are being seen at lower elevations.<\/p>\n

“There’s a lot less berries at higher elevations than there should be for a normal year, and that’s likely driving a lot of the conflict,” Doyle said.<\/p>\n

Between January and July this year, conservation officers have responded to 13,672 calls regarding black bears in B.C.<\/p>\n

At least 33 black bears have been killed in the first seven months of the year. September is often the deadliest month, with nine being killed last year.<\/p>\n

Bears killed after entering stores<\/p>\n

A bear wandered into a Squamish grocery store on Sept. 17 around 3 p.m. PT through automatic sliding doors.<\/p>\n

Video captured the bear walking near the produce section of the store, and shortly after, it left through the sliding doors.<\/p>\n

The B.C. Conservation Officer Service (BCCOS) said the bear also entered another business in the downtown area.<\/p>\n

When officers arrived, the bear was outside the store. Officers tranquillized the bear and killed it.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/p>\n

(Submitted by Tim Langille)<\/p>\n

In a statement, the service said the bear was killed “due to public safety concerns”.<\/p>\n

A similar incident occurred in Hope recently when a black bear and its cub entered a pharmacy on Sept. 20 through automatic sliding doors.<\/p>\n

BCCOS confirmed the mother bear was killed and the cub was released into a wilderness area.<\/p>\n

“Bears that pose a serious threat to public safety, such as those that display a minimal fear of people or are conditioned to non-natural food sources, are not candidates for relocation or rehabilitation, as the risk is simply far too great,” said the service.<\/p>\n

Calls for change<\/p>\n

Advocates argue that more can be done to prevent bears from being killed.<\/p>\n

Holly Reisner with North Shore Black Bear Society said there has been an increased level of bear activity in B.C.<\/p>\n

“These automated doors are just allowing bears to enter,” Reisner said. “The bears are very attracted by any type of odour.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

She’s encouraging businesses to consider replacing the doors so bears cannot enter.<\/p>\n

Lesley Fox, executive director of The Fur-Bearers, said a bear walking through a doorway should not be a death sentence.<\/p>\n

“The question should be what the bear actually did, whether they posed a genuine threat, and whether reasonable non-lethal options were available,” Fox said.<\/p>\n

She suggests better security features be installed.<\/p>\n

“These are preventable problems,” Fox said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Squamish, B.C., homeowner is using a motion-activated Halloween decoration to scare bears away from his garbage bins.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":911640,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[36313,49,48,208595,206954,66,62020,314775,323],"class_list":["post-911639","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-black-bear","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-garbage-bin","tag-garbage-bins","tag-science","tag-squamish","tag-stephen-fryer","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/911639","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=911639"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/911639\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/911640"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=911639"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=911639"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=911639"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}