Oregon man kills bear in his house...

[spin]

GRANTS PASS, Ore. (AP) — An Oregon family has learned the hazards of leaving a window open in summer time.

That's after a bear ripped off the window screen and broke into their house over the weekend.

Everett Skinner's daughter was the first to spot the bear after awakening to a strange shuffling sound. She quickly retreated to her parents' room to get help.

Skinner grabbed his shotgun and found the bear in the den. He says the animal stood up and headed toward him, so he fired. It took four shots to kill the bear.
http://www.nbcactionnews.com/news/national/story/Oregon-man-grabs-shotgun-kills-bear-in-house/ky4TYlcyAEm1HLFR2XQHLQ.cspx

[Euromutt]

1. "I once shot a tiger in my pajamas"

"How he got in my pajamas I'll never know." -- Groucho Marx

Seriously, while shooting this bear was probably necessary, what probably wasn't was letting it get to this point in the first place. Bears don't just wander into people's backyards and houses; they're after unsecured food, and if you live in bear country, you can't just leave any lying around. That includes bird feeders: black bears go nuts for bird seed, weird as that sounds.

Thing is, by the time bears become a serious nuisance, or even a threat, there's been a lot of habituating and socialization going on beforehand, mainly due to human carelessness. Don't let it come to that!

[GreenPartyVoter]

3. Yep. It was too bad they left the window open enough that it could go in through the screening.

[hlthe2b]

4. Exactly.... what fools

You don't live in bear, mountain lion, or other territory with wildlife without taking basic precautions. That includes not putting a doggy door in that is big enough for a 90 pound lab (and thus theoretically many smaller wildlife species) to enter. You don't leave windows open with the smells of food residue drifting for miles to the sensitive nose of many wild animals. You don't leave food unsecured no matter how untasty it would seem to humans.

They put up the big welcome sign and then were surprised when they were visited. What absolute fools.

[AtheistCrusader]

9. You gotta be fucking kidding me.

Hi. Was 95 degrees here today. I live in 'black bear and cougar country'. Excuse the fuck out of me while I go button up all the windows in my house and turn it into a fucking oven.

[Euromutt]

11. Your profile says you live in Seattle, AC

I live in Auburn myself, and I can tell you that Seattle itself is neither cougar nor black bear country. Okay, maybe you live elsewhere in King County and just list your location as Seattle to make things easier for other DUers, but seriously, to be living in black bear and cougar country, you have to be living east of the line Woodinville-Sammamish-Issaquah-Maple Valley.

Understand that it's not like the only thing standing between you and a black bear--or, less likely, a cougar--busting into your house is you keeping the windows closed. By the time a bear even thinks of busting into your house, it has had to have been encouraged for quite bit already. First, it's the bird feeders, then it's trash cans at night, then it's the trash cans in broad daylight, etc. It's an escalating process, and all too often, the humans don't think to halt the process until it's well out of hand.

If you do stuff like not put out bird feeders (black bears are nuts for bird seed), keep your trash cans in the garage until the morning of pickup day, and generally don't advertise the presence of food, you should be able to leave the windows open without any bears trying to bust in.

[AtheistCrusader]

14. I live east of North Bend.

So you're correct, King County.

But the bear may not be breaking in because it specifically smells food inside the house, it can simply be a habit, encouraged by sloppy neighbors that had nothing to do with the incident. By the time he gets around to 'your' house, it might be a loaf of bread on the counter, in it's wrapper that would be enough to encourage it to come on in and help itself.

[Euromutt]

15. That's a very valid point

And yeah, east of North Bend is definitely black bear and cougar country, no argument from me there.

No, you're quite right that you (general "you") can do everything right where bears are concerned, and still have your efforts scuppered by sloppy neighbors. Still, if you've got evidence of a bear getting a bit too comfortable around your neighborhood, you might want to get in touch with the local office of the state Dept. of Fish & Wildlife sooner rather than later, before killing the critter becomes unavoidable.

You might also want to disseminate information about bears to your neighbors. The WDFW has a good page about "Living with Black Bears": http://wdfw.wa.gov/wlm/living/bears.htm
There's a PDF you can print off as well to hand out to the broadband-impaired.

[GreenPartyVoter]

2. That oughta give Stephen Cobert nightmares for months! (Glad the family was ok)

[maxsolomon]

5. avoidable tragedy

they better eat the whole bear.

[Tejas]

17. anti - "at least he didn't shoot him in the back" - /anti

[rrneck]

6. You skin that one pilgrim

And I'll get ya' another!

[spin]

7. Out of curosity...

how many people who live in bear country leave their windows open at night in the summer?

While it doesn't sound like a good idea to me, I live in Florida and have air conditioning.

[applegrove]

8. I hate bears.

[DonP]

13. I'm from Chicago and I hate Packers ands Vikings - so there! Ntxt

[pipoman]

10. Imagine that...

the bear was in the den....

[X_Digger]

12. Yuk yuk yuk! hehe, n/t

[Tejas]

16. oh, for the love of

:rofl:

[Tejas]

18. that's worse then "the right to arm bears"