Please Share: Collective grief over the loss of our bears.
Our hearts are broken with the killing spree carried out against our bears - beings who lived beside us, trusted us, and asked for so little in return. These names are not statistics. They are lives. They are stories. They are relationships, and they deserved so much better.
Maple Cub
A tiny life we had to fight for - a cub who should have grown into the safety of the forest, not into the chaos of human failure.
He survived but without the communities voice would have died.
Coquitlam Orphans
Never picked up. Never seen again. Two small bodies wandering without the mother who should have been their
anchor.
Maple Ridge
Golden Ears Park bear named Scratch, a peaceful mama bear, secretly trapped and killed in a campground. She harmed no one. She simply existed - and for that, she died. Her two cubs were left orphaned, confused, and crying for a mother who would never return.
Coquitlam
Betty, a gentle mother, shot by RCMP and left to suffer extensively in front of her two tiny cubs on a lawn she believed was safe. Her death was slow, cruel, and witnessed by the babies she was trying to protect.
Everywhere in BC
Yearlings &
Sub-Adults
The nameless ones. The ones who never make the news. The ones who die quietly, anonymously, because they dared to exist near us.
Whistler
Whistles, who suffered while eating
berries — a harmless act - and despite public outcry, was taken away (never did the COS confirm to the public what happened to him). He was a bear who trusted the land and was betrayed by the system.
Nelson
Nell, the older grizzly everyone loved. Her killing was premeditated by our province. After she was shot, she struggled to breathe, lifting her head again and again as she lay dying. Her last thoughts were likely fear for the lives of her cubs. Her two remaining offspring are unlikely to survive without her guidance.
These names are only a teaspoon of the death and carnage our British Columbia provincial authorities have caused. A teaspoon in an ocean of loss.
*Please ADD to this list in your comments the bears you personally have lost.
*Let their names be spoken.
*Let their stories be remembered.
*Let their lives be honoured.
Next:
*The people.
*The ones who carry the trauma.
*The ones who watched these bears grow, forage, raise families, and move through their lives with generosity and gentleness.
*The ones who loved them.
*The ones who will never forget what they saw.
*Together, let's acknowledge their lives - both human and bear - and swear that we will fight for change rooted in kindness, compassion, and truth.
Together our voices will put truth to words to action to change!!
-Ellie
BearKindCA
"COURAGE is the price that Life exacts for granting PEACE."
— Amelia Earhart (1898-1937)