Jul 12, 2019 —
PLEASE CLICK AND SIGN ABOVE LINK FOR CHARLIE
Charlie, the first black bear cub who was allowed to be rehabilitated in over 8 years was shot and killed by a civilian 12 days after his release. The institute who rehabbed Charlie, have been successful in bear rehab and reared and released orphaned Black bears for 15 years without an incidence of human/wildlife conflict or the loss of a bear (this is Alberta Environment and Parks data ).
AEP is refusing to share details, including GPS information regarding the death of the bear. AEP is also eluding to the bear being habituated, which would make their plan to shut down bear rehabilitation all that much more convenient.
First of all - the experts in Wildlife rehabilitation would not have released the cubs separately when they were raised as siblings. It doubled the cost to the taxpayer for the separate release, as well.
Charlie was released in the Pincher Creek area which is fairly heavily impacted by human usage, has had significant wild fires over the past few years, and also (Dr. Mark Boyce
2014 paper) increased grizzly bear movement which is pushing Black bears onto habitat they don't usually use. Boyce attributes this to much
increased recreational usage of the area. Not a good release site.
If Alberta Environment and Parks had better experience and knowledge of these facts, perhaps they would not have released Charlie in this area and set him up for failure.
We request that an advisory committee, made up of MLA's and a variety of experts, regarding wildlife rehabilitation, be created as soon as possible to prevent further, unnecessary tragedies like the death of Charlie.
Please click on the link at the top of the page and sign the next petition. We will continue to fight for those who have no voice.
Thanks for your time,