If you’re a bear hunter, you need a permit. That’s just as true in Alaska as it is in California. But what if the bear chases you? A recent close encounter of the ursine kind in Paradise [sic] reveals the “quirks” of legal bear killing within the The Golden State’s borders.
Stuart was in his home Saturday night watching the Olympics when around 10:30 p.m. he heard a big bang in his garage.
He said he went into his garage and saw a piece of the door being ripped off. He knew immediately that it was a bear.
“I actually yelled while I was in the garage and that didn’t phase him,” Stuart explained.
When his hazing efforts and even his three large dogs in his backyard didn’t deter the animal, he grabbed a shotgun and came out on his porch.
At this point, he said he thinks he was about 15 feet from the bear.
He said he sent one round from his gun into the air. The bear did nothing. He was not trying to kill the animal, he explained. Just scare him off.
“He was not afraid,” Stuart remembered. “He just gingerly walked along. I had to shoot another round and he finally just walked down the street.”
Although he didn’t shoot through his garage door, it seems Stuart had been listening to Vice President Joe Biden’s advice about using a shotgun to warn away dangerous predators. Noting, perhaps, that the Veep’s advice was illegal.
Anyway, one would hope that Stuart could kill a bear in self-defense. And face a proctological examination thereafter, no doubt. We now learn that it’s OK to shoot a bear threatening your property in California.
After Saturday’s incident, Stuart decided to go to the Department of Fish and Wildlife and apply for a “permit to kill”.
Stuart said he thinks the bear will be back and he wants to be prepared.
“Be aware that there are bears up here in Paradise and that you need to protect your property and that you have the right to kill the bear if he continues to come back,” Stuart said as advice to his neighbors.
The Department of Fish and Wildlife said the permit to kill is specifically for protecting your property and can be attained from your nearest office.
And there you were thinking that bears had equal rights. That said, the California bear killing permitting process means that you can only kill a trespassing bear if you know it’s going to trespass in advance.
One thing’s for sure: The Department of Fish and Wildlife understands that informing homeowners of their right to terminate a trespassing bear is not PC.
Fish and Wildlife urges that if you feel a threat to your life, call 9-1-1 immediately.
When bears invade, the police are only minutes away! Armed for bear? One certainly hopes so. Otherwise, it’s paradise lost.