Bear Captured In Roxborough Neighborhood Was Breaking Into Homes
LITTLETON, Colo. (CBS4)- A bear captured in a Roxborough neighborhood Wednesday morning will have to be put down.
"He ran up the tree, down the tree and tried to get back into the yard," said Roxborough Village resident Kathleen Garner.
The 2-year-old female bear climbed a tree after neighbors reported seeing the animal in Roxborough Village.
Wildlife officers had to tranquilize her twice but the bear never fell from the tree. They got creative in the effort to bring her down.
"The electric company came in and grabbed the bear and brought in the bucket," said Garner.
The same bear had been breaking into homes and that leaves only one option for the young bear.
"It's very tough on our officers and it's tough on the public. Bears need to stay away from neighborhoods and people need to do everything we can within our power to deter them from getting into human--provided food sources or any sort of human food that makes them hang around neighborhoods," said Colorado Parks & Wildlife spokeswoman Jennifer Churchill.
Neighbors were upset when they learned the fate of the bear.
"I immediately thought, 'Okay, I knew this was going to happen sometime' because we have a lot of neighbors who leave their trash out in the driveways. We have chickens over there, we have barbeques over there, there are a lot of things that happen in the park, maybe someone left some food items out there last night. But my main concern was trash in the neighborhood because we need to clean up our neighborhood to prevent these kinds of things," said neighbor Marianne Barnes.
Churchill said it's too dangerous when bears get too comfortable around humans. That's why it is important to make sure no one leaves trash and other food sources around their homes where bears can easily find it and come back again in search of more when they get hungry.
Wildlife officials also urge residents to not take a sympathetic approach to the bears and feed them when they are so desperately looking for food. Once they learn a neighborhood is a good source of food it will return again and again.
Neighbors said another bear may be roaming the neighborhood but they haven't located it yet.
