A bear was hit with bean bag round and died. Now a mountain town is asking questions.

By Alan Gionet

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    SAN JUAN COUNTY, California (KCNC) — In a small Colorado town where the Durango and Silverton Narrow Guage Railroad reaches its destination, there’s a lot of discussion right now about what led to the death of a mother bear.

The bear was shot with a bean bag projectile when a San Juan County sheriff’s deputy arrived to find people gathered near it in a downtown Silverton alley Tuesday night.

“It’s tragic. And I think the I think from everyone I’ve talked to in town, everyone’s really, really, upset about it,” said local resident Cherie Naffziger. Naffziger recorded video of a mother bear and two cubs in town recently, which she believed were the same bears.

Word spread around town quickly after it was spotted in that alley. Drawn into town by trash, the bears wandered behind a block with restaurants. Ken Boden owns Handlebars. He says he secures his dumpster, but people put trash next to it at times.

“We have so many tourists that, coming off the trains well, they need trash containers on every corner, so they can throw away their soda pops, and whatever,” he said.

The trash draws bears. Video recorded by one woman who witnessed the beginning of the developing situation shows people near the mother and cubs. The woman, who did not want to be identified, said one of the people was harassing the bears, even reaching up to touch one of the cubs as the mother was on top of a closed shed where trash is kept and the cubs were on a power pole next to it.

Boden saw what happened after a deputy showed up with people all around. The deputy fired a bean bag that Colorado Parks and Wildlife says pierced the mother bear’s abdomen and was later found inside the bear.

“She waddled over to the edge of the shed, crawled down and then walked down the alley. And that’s the last I saw of her,” said Boden. “She didn’t look injured to me.”

But the bear was mortally wounded, dying nearby soon after. The cubs waited for their mother, then climbed down when she did not return.

Bean bag rounds rarely kill animals that are hit by them. But they can cause injury said CPW Spokesman John Livingston. He noted how one bear had a bone broken by a bean bag.

“Unfortunately this one must have hit something that caused it to pass away,” said Boden, who knows the deputy who fired the bean bag round. “We’re all sad about that. It wasn’t intentional.”

“The deputy was just doing his job trying to protect everyone; a crowd gathering,” he said. “It wasn’t out of meanness or anything like that.”

The cubs were later trapped by CPW workers who took them away from Silverton and later released them in the wild.

Naffziger found that upsetting, believing the cubs were too young to be on their own. A mother herself, she felt for the bears.

“If you could see in that video that I posted, they’re suckling, and then she’s like, tired of them, and then they follow her. And I think any mom can attest to that,” said Naffziger. “I know we kind of put our own views onto animals, but that’s kind of what I thought.”

Livingston said it’s CPW policy that after Aug. 15, young bears born over the winter, when they usually are, that appear strong and healthy, can be released into the wild after losing their mother. The two cubs appeared healthy, he said.

“All decisions are on a case-by-case basis,” he said, noting that CPW officers have expertise. “If they are in good condition, we relocate them.”

In town on social media there is a lot of discussion, some of it getting acrimonious, about the alleged harassment of the bears, the reasons they were in town looking for trash, the shooting of the bears and the relocating of the cubs. Livingston pointed out that touching wild animals like bears can be considered harassment, which is against Colorado law. The sheriff’s department is investigating the shooting and the circumstances.

Silverton Mayor Dayba Kranker posted, “In the near future, the Town will schedule a community meeting with wildlife experts, stakeholders, and community members to form a coalition and discuss solutions that we can implement for next season.”

She noted that the outcome had been avoidable: “And we can all work together to better protest the local wildlife that we share a home with.”

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