ASPEN — Aspen and Pitkin County law enforcement have been asked to kill aggressive or dangerous bears on behalf of the Colorado Division of Wildlife when it cannot respond in a timely manner.
The agency wants the Aspen Police Department and Pitkin County Sheriff’s Office to shoot and kill aggressive black bears that break into locked homes and other buildings, or bears that pose a threat toward humans, said DOW spokesman Randy Hampton. The DOW has the legal authority to kill bears, and extending that to the sheriff’s office and the police department is a unique, if not unprecedented, measure, he said.
Because the DOW staffs only one wildlife officer in Aspen, the agency doesn’t have the manpower to handle every complaint or call about dangerous or aggressive bears, Hampton said.
“This isn’t something we anticipated,” he said. “But we’re so short-staffed with one wildlife officer in the Aspen area that if he isn’t working, we have one on-call from Vail or Glenwood, and that bear may be long gone by the time the officer arrives.”
Through Friday, the DOW had killed four bears in Pitkin County this year, the most recent on Wednesday, Hampton said. A bear is considered dangerous when it breaks through a locked door or poses a threat to a human. Bears that simply enter a building with unlocked doors are not necessarily aggressive or dangerous, Hampton said.
For nuisance bears, the DOW has a two-strike policy and often relocates them. That’s not the case with the rogue bruins, Hampton said.
“Under no circumstance will we relocate a dangerous bear,” he said.
Sheriff Bob Braudis and Aspen police spokeswoman Stephanie Dasaro said each department is eyeing the creation of a policy about how to kill aggressive bears.
