IronNoggin
Well-Known Member
After $6000 in fines, here's their story about what happened
The Grizzly Reality: Crocs, Cows, and the Courtroom
We were walking up our long winding driveway wearing our crocs to go find our milk cows at around 7pm when we walked into an open space and saw this large brown fuzzy thing. We thought to ourselves, “that’s not the right colour for Milly.” Next thing we know, a grizzly bear is running towards us. We panicked and ran away back down the driveway. The bear chased us but we didn't look back; we were both praying our crocs wouldn’t fly off or the bear's jaws would close on us as we ran.
We got back to our house, very panicked, and went looking for some shotguns. We had been told by an old hunter that the best defence against bears is a shotgun with slugs, so with shaking hands and several dropped and fumbled shells, we armed ourselves and started heading back to make sure our dairy cows were safe. We didn’t even have the presence of mind to put on better shoes. By the time we got back to where we saw the fuzzy brown blob, we heard our vocally challenged cow do what we call a honk. We headed in her direction and saw the bear within 10 feet of the cows and purposefully heading right for them. Seneca had a clear shot—she was in front and knew this was her only chance. Any more seconds and who knows what would have happened. She shot several times and we saw the bear flinch. He did not go down and started scaling the rock bluff that was a few feet away, leading to 50 plus acres of thick brush and rough terrain.
We thought to ourselves, “(****), what now?” We had no cell reception, no phones, and we were running on pure adrenaline. Neither of us believe in letting animals suffer and if you shoot something, you are responsible for finishing the job. We were also thinking of our neighbours on both sides—admittedly several kilometres away—who have small children and livestock of their own. Leaving a wounded grizzly to wander off into the dusk did not compute for either of us.
Emboldened by adrenaline and the ethical drive to do what was right, we followed the crashing sounds. This led us to another road on our homestead. After about 45 minutes of crashing and very tentative walking on our part, we came upon the bear. He was standing but looking quite disheveled and panting heavily. I walked up on him—I wasn’t letting Seneca in front this time—and when I was close enough I put a slug into his head. He fell and as I walked up he looked up at me and I had a flash of our little pet bull that we had sold to a friend a few weeks before. I knew it was not him and it was a very dangerous bear, but it shook me to my core. I knew I had to finish the job and I did. By this point it was dark and we were totally strung out on adrenaline. But dairy cows don’t care about the day you’ve had; they need care and to be milked. We did all that running on fumes and went to bed.
The next day all hell broke loose. Someone coming to do road work saw blood and people got called. We got a call and everyone was freaked out. We assured them that there was no danger, but we were scared and didn’t know what to do next. There are local people who pretty much worship this bear to an unhealthy degree. We had run-ins with several individuals weeks before when the bear had been spotted nearby and we had gotten everything from people showing up with loaded guns to threats of vigilante justice if anything happened to the bear on our homestead. We were now thinking, "(****), if all that went down for just a sighting, what would happen now?"
We were informed that the Conservation Officers (COs) were on their way. We thought when they came to see us we would explain everything. All that day we waited and nothing. The next morning we had a very serious family emergency and were out of the house the whole day. The next morning the COs finally came. We were relieved. We told them we were afraid to go seek out where the bear was to find them because of the bizarre experiences we had before with local "enthusiasts". We told them the whole story and gave them our guns to photograph. They said our following and dispatching it was “brave,” though we both know they meant stupid. Who goes after a grizzly bear in crocs?
They told us about this bear's rap sheet before and during its 6 weeks on Texada Island—that he had chased two people into the ocean and ate their clothes, that he chased a woman who was walking with her horse, and stalked people on trails several times. They told us more horror stories about wounded grizzlies and how it never ended well. They also told us that this bear had nothing in his stomach and must have been very hungry. As farmers, we could tell he did not look in great shape with dull fur and not much body reserves. One officer said maybe he was eating bad shellfish and it made him act strange and more aggressive. We expressed how we were happy to take responsibility but we were afraid for our safety from the individuals who had deified this bear. They told us they understood and that we should have called the hotline sooner, but they understood the context and that we were country bumpkins pretty oblivious of laws about bear encounters. They told us we should expect a modest ticket in the mail and told us not to tell ANYONE what happened for our own safety.
So all went quiet for a few months. We dodged awkward questions and kept our mouths shut. Then one Sunday on a long weekend a CO shows up. He tells us we are being summoned to court. He says, “I’m just the messenger boy, someone wants to make this bigger.” The next day, bam! Our faces are on the news. All sorts of slanderous, horrifyingly untrue stories are being told. This was exactly what we were afraid of. A bunch of legal wrangling ensued. Every lawyer we talked to was very confused, and every court clerk was equally so. We assumed a good judge would see the messy situation and our honesty and give us a reasonable penalty close to the ticket the COs had anticipated. Sadly this was not the case. The judge said as a principle of general deterrence we are both fined $3,000. A total of $6,000. The thing about small farming is it does not put one in a high tax bracket. As a result we are not wealthy people; we have very limited means and the legal wrangling has already cost us around $2,000.
We feel this is a case of “get ‘em any way you can” justice. They seem to be punishing us for defending our lives and property by a back door and calling it deterrence. It seems they are trying to create the “bad people get big fine” headlines. We are both very disappointed in the justice system. We believe this sends the wrong message to people who have dangerous encounters with wildlife and are not wildlife lawyers. It says if you do your best and are honest they will get you on anything they can. We did our best under very messy and adrenaline filled circumstances. We feel unfairly punished. And if you would like to support us in this mess we would really appreciate any and all donations!
The government officials failed the people of this island in spectacular fashion. For six weeks they dilly dallied, doing daytrips, moving ineffective bear traps around and generally not doing anything effective and simply hoping he would move on come breeding season, but no such luck. When it comes to trapping grizzlies it's a bit of a fool me once type of affair. This bear had been trapped twice and relocated, and he didn't want to take the bumpy ride in the tin can again. The Conservation Officer Service didn’t seem to have any plan for this bear and was more than happy to visit yesterday’s sightings and wait for some poor fool to deal with him when he inevitably got hungry. But lo and behold the secret plan! Hatched between our devilishly clever MLA Randene Neil and the Conservation Officer Service, they were going to come up with an incredibly new and sophisticated plan (did I mention it was secret) to capture and relocate the bear using… a bear trap. The same traps that had failed to catch him this entire time. And why was it secret? Because us backwards hillbilly Texadans would track down this bear and kill him if we caught wind of his imminent escape! The sad truth is that this wasn’t a plan, this was an idea, an intent to make a plan. And a good way for our dear public officials to try and cover their behinds and look like they were actually going to do something, someday.
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The Grizzly Reality: Crocs, Cows, and the Courtroom
We were walking up our long winding driveway wearing our crocs to go find our milk cows at around 7pm when we walked into an open space and saw this large brown fuzzy thing. We thought to ourselves, “that’s not the right colour for Milly.” Next thing we know, a grizzly bear is running towards us. We panicked and ran away back down the driveway. The bear chased us but we didn't look back; we were both praying our crocs wouldn’t fly off or the bear's jaws would close on us as we ran.
We got back to our house, very panicked, and went looking for some shotguns. We had been told by an old hunter that the best defence against bears is a shotgun with slugs, so with shaking hands and several dropped and fumbled shells, we armed ourselves and started heading back to make sure our dairy cows were safe. We didn’t even have the presence of mind to put on better shoes. By the time we got back to where we saw the fuzzy brown blob, we heard our vocally challenged cow do what we call a honk. We headed in her direction and saw the bear within 10 feet of the cows and purposefully heading right for them. Seneca had a clear shot—she was in front and knew this was her only chance. Any more seconds and who knows what would have happened. She shot several times and we saw the bear flinch. He did not go down and started scaling the rock bluff that was a few feet away, leading to 50 plus acres of thick brush and rough terrain.
We thought to ourselves, “(****), what now?” We had no cell reception, no phones, and we were running on pure adrenaline. Neither of us believe in letting animals suffer and if you shoot something, you are responsible for finishing the job. We were also thinking of our neighbours on both sides—admittedly several kilometres away—who have small children and livestock of their own. Leaving a wounded grizzly to wander off into the dusk did not compute for either of us.
Emboldened by adrenaline and the ethical drive to do what was right, we followed the crashing sounds. This led us to another road on our homestead. After about 45 minutes of crashing and very tentative walking on our part, we came upon the bear. He was standing but looking quite disheveled and panting heavily. I walked up on him—I wasn’t letting Seneca in front this time—and when I was close enough I put a slug into his head. He fell and as I walked up he looked up at me and I had a flash of our little pet bull that we had sold to a friend a few weeks before. I knew it was not him and it was a very dangerous bear, but it shook me to my core. I knew I had to finish the job and I did. By this point it was dark and we were totally strung out on adrenaline. But dairy cows don’t care about the day you’ve had; they need care and to be milked. We did all that running on fumes and went to bed.
The next day all hell broke loose. Someone coming to do road work saw blood and people got called. We got a call and everyone was freaked out. We assured them that there was no danger, but we were scared and didn’t know what to do next. There are local people who pretty much worship this bear to an unhealthy degree. We had run-ins with several individuals weeks before when the bear had been spotted nearby and we had gotten everything from people showing up with loaded guns to threats of vigilante justice if anything happened to the bear on our homestead. We were now thinking, "(****), if all that went down for just a sighting, what would happen now?"
We were informed that the Conservation Officers (COs) were on their way. We thought when they came to see us we would explain everything. All that day we waited and nothing. The next morning we had a very serious family emergency and were out of the house the whole day. The next morning the COs finally came. We were relieved. We told them we were afraid to go seek out where the bear was to find them because of the bizarre experiences we had before with local "enthusiasts". We told them the whole story and gave them our guns to photograph. They said our following and dispatching it was “brave,” though we both know they meant stupid. Who goes after a grizzly bear in crocs?
They told us about this bear's rap sheet before and during its 6 weeks on Texada Island—that he had chased two people into the ocean and ate their clothes, that he chased a woman who was walking with her horse, and stalked people on trails several times. They told us more horror stories about wounded grizzlies and how it never ended well. They also told us that this bear had nothing in his stomach and must have been very hungry. As farmers, we could tell he did not look in great shape with dull fur and not much body reserves. One officer said maybe he was eating bad shellfish and it made him act strange and more aggressive. We expressed how we were happy to take responsibility but we were afraid for our safety from the individuals who had deified this bear. They told us they understood and that we should have called the hotline sooner, but they understood the context and that we were country bumpkins pretty oblivious of laws about bear encounters. They told us we should expect a modest ticket in the mail and told us not to tell ANYONE what happened for our own safety.
So all went quiet for a few months. We dodged awkward questions and kept our mouths shut. Then one Sunday on a long weekend a CO shows up. He tells us we are being summoned to court. He says, “I’m just the messenger boy, someone wants to make this bigger.” The next day, bam! Our faces are on the news. All sorts of slanderous, horrifyingly untrue stories are being told. This was exactly what we were afraid of. A bunch of legal wrangling ensued. Every lawyer we talked to was very confused, and every court clerk was equally so. We assumed a good judge would see the messy situation and our honesty and give us a reasonable penalty close to the ticket the COs had anticipated. Sadly this was not the case. The judge said as a principle of general deterrence we are both fined $3,000. A total of $6,000. The thing about small farming is it does not put one in a high tax bracket. As a result we are not wealthy people; we have very limited means and the legal wrangling has already cost us around $2,000.
We feel this is a case of “get ‘em any way you can” justice. They seem to be punishing us for defending our lives and property by a back door and calling it deterrence. It seems they are trying to create the “bad people get big fine” headlines. We are both very disappointed in the justice system. We believe this sends the wrong message to people who have dangerous encounters with wildlife and are not wildlife lawyers. It says if you do your best and are honest they will get you on anything they can. We did our best under very messy and adrenaline filled circumstances. We feel unfairly punished. And if you would like to support us in this mess we would really appreciate any and all donations!
The government officials failed the people of this island in spectacular fashion. For six weeks they dilly dallied, doing daytrips, moving ineffective bear traps around and generally not doing anything effective and simply hoping he would move on come breeding season, but no such luck. When it comes to trapping grizzlies it's a bit of a fool me once type of affair. This bear had been trapped twice and relocated, and he didn't want to take the bumpy ride in the tin can again. The Conservation Officer Service didn’t seem to have any plan for this bear and was more than happy to visit yesterday’s sightings and wait for some poor fool to deal with him when he inevitably got hungry. But lo and behold the secret plan! Hatched between our devilishly clever MLA Randene Neil and the Conservation Officer Service, they were going to come up with an incredibly new and sophisticated plan (did I mention it was secret) to capture and relocate the bear using… a bear trap. The same traps that had failed to catch him this entire time. And why was it secret? Because us backwards hillbilly Texadans would track down this bear and kill him if we caught wind of his imminent escape! The sad truth is that this wasn’t a plan, this was an idea, an intent to make a plan. And a good way for our dear public officials to try and cover their behinds and look like they were actually going to do something, someday.
Donate to Kody Bevan and Seneca Antony: The Grizzly Reality, organized by Kody Bevans
**** if you’ve already read our story and have come to donate we’d like … Kody Bevans needs your support for Kody Bevan and Seneca Antony: The Grizzly Reality
