ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Charlie Vandergaw is crazy about bears.
That’s obvious in a documentary made last year by a British filmmaker at Vandergaw’s remote Alaska cabin and featured in the recent Animal Planet series “Stranger Among Bears.”
The videos show him scratching the belly of one black bear as if it were the family dog, feeding a cookie to a large black bear sitting under a tree and feeding dog kibble to a cub from his outstretched hand.
Vandergaw has been coexisting with bears for the past 20 years, and he wants to be left alone.
That is not likely to happen now that the state is using a beefed-up law to prosecute Vandergaw for feeding bears. Game officials consider feeding bears a danger to humans, especially if others duplicate the behavior.
Not everyone thinks the state needs to be going after a 70-year-old retired teacher.
Even if Vandergaw ends up being killed by the bears he loves, that’s the Alaska way, said John Frost, who has been friends with Vandergaw for years. He recalled that when he came to Alaska in 1973, he saw a T-shirt that said: “Alaska land of the individual and other endangered species.”
“Here we are as a state going to crush this kind, gentle little guy,” Frost said.
The bears at Vandergaw’s cabin about 50 miles northwest of Anchorage are more than bold, said Sean Farley, a research biologist with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, who helped troopers serve a search warrant on Vandergaw’s cabin last year.
During the search, bears had be scared off with “cracker shots” that make a loud noise.
If bears were that bold in an Anchorage park or campground, Farley said, he would recommend they be shot right away.
The state last week charged Vandergaw with 20 counts of illegally feeding game, which could put him in jail for a year and fine him $10,000.
The law was recently changed to include stiffer fines and jail time, and Frost said it was specifically changed to go after his friend, Vandergaw.
There was no comment from Vandergaw.
Vandergaw’s attorney, Kevin T. Fitzgerald, said in a statement that he found the state charges “curious as to both timing and substance.” He said Vandergaw stopped feeding bears last year.
The documentary describes how Vandergaw once hunted bears but quit after an encounter with a bear 20 years ago, shortly after he retired in 1985. A black bear appeared on his yard and crawled up to him on its belly. According to the Animal Planet website, Vandergaw reciprocated, and the encounter started “a long-lasting love affair” with bears.
On one of the documentary videos, Vandergaw says: “I think basically what I do is my business as long as I’m not hurting anyone.” But Farley said Vandergaw was profiting from his bear activities.
