Wildlife group names the 'deadliest communities' for black bears in B.C.

Prince George has topped the list of the most dangerous places for black bears in British Columbia in 2022, according to a wildlife advocacy group.

The Association for the Protection of Fur-Bearing Animals, also known as Fur-Bearers, announced Tuesday that the northern B.C. city is among the eight "deadliest communities" for black bears in the province, based on data obtained through freedom of information requests from the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change.

In 2022, conservation officers in Prince George put down 32 black bears, 21 in Nelson, and 14 in Castlegar.

Twelve bears were put down each in Okanagan Falls, Revelstoke and West Kelowna. Ten bears each were put down in Nanaimo and Port Alberni on Vancouver Island. 

These eight areas accounted for a quarter of the 500 black bears killed in total in B.C. last year, reports Fur-Bearers, which looked at data from 400 communities across the province.

It's the second year the organization has published data on black bears killed by conservation officers, and Prince George is the only city to appear among the top during both years.

In 2021, 36 bears were killed in the northern B.C. city, and according to Fur-Bearers data, among the nearly 4,300 black bears put down in B.C. between 2015 to 2022, 236 were in Prince George — the most recorded in the province for that time period.

Advocating for changes to bear encounters

For years, Fur-Bearers has advocated for changes to how conservation officers in B.C. handle bear encounters.

The group argues that B.C.'s Wildlife Act prohibits officers from killing animals unless they pose a threat to people or property. However, the province counters that the law gives officers discretion over whether to do so.

In 2017, the organization filed a court case against a conservation officer who killed a bear cub near Dawson Creek the year before, but lost the case at B.C. Supreme Court.

In his ruling, Justice G.C. Weatherill sided with the chief conservation officer's review of the incident, saying that in some circumstances, conservation officers have the discretion and authority to kill wildlife that may not pose a threat.

"I find it inconceivable that the Legislature intended to restrict the wildlife management powers of officers to kill wildlife to those that are at large and are likely to harm," Weatherill said in his ruling.

Aaron Hofman, director of advocacy and policy at Fur-Bearers, says black bears are often killed by conservation officers when they start accessing garbage and spending time in densely populated areas, seeking unnatural food sources from unsecured attractants.

"I would push back on the idea that once they're accessing human resources that they need to be killed and that they're a threat to public safety — they may not be," he said.

Although Prince George has implemented strong waste management programs to prevent bears from being attracted to garbage, Hofman says more needs to be done.

"Cities can ensure that their [waste] bins are wildlife-resistant. They can pass bylaws against wildlife feeding," he said.

"They can require that residents pick their fruit trees, they can ensure that bird feeders are only out at certain areas of the year, so all these things do have a role in reducing black bears accessing natural food sources in urban centres."

CBC News has reached out to the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change, which is responsible for the B.C. Conservation Officer Service, for comment. The City of Prince George declined to comment on the advocacy group's findings.