The state wildlife officer who made the call to kill a bear that kept returning to a Boulder farm to attack the goats said Friday that her agency is responsible for human safety with regard to wildlife.
“To be frank, wildlife loses out a lot,” Colorado Parks and Wildlife district wildlife manager Kristin Cannon told a small group at a meeting hosted by the Boulder Bear Coalition. “But we try not to overreact with bears. We’ve had a lot of bears in town, and we’ve had a lot of bears in town that we didn’t do anything about.”
But the bear killed in September didn’t run away or climb a tree when people approached.
“It was sitting under a tree,” she said. “It wasn’t showing any fear. I didn’t feel like I could leave it there.”
Cannon said the bear was also killed because it had “close to a zero” chance of being successfully relocated, which wildlife officials have done in Boulder a handful of times this year. However, even a bear that is relocated will be put down if it is caught again.
She added that the property owners didn’t have any input into the decision to kill the bear and the CPW should be the only entity held accountable for the action. It was the first time in 2017 that wildlife officials have killed a bear in Boulder, but as of early September, 93 bears have been killed in Colorado.
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