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‘Very bad idea’: Wildlife centre asks drivers to stop feeding bear on Vancouver Island

Centre warns that a fed bear could become a dead bear
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(Black Press Media file)

A wildlife rescue centre on Vancouver Island is urging people to not feed the bears.

The warning comes from the MARS Wildlife Rescue Centre received reports that people have been feeding a local black bear along Hwy. 4 while stopped for roadwork near Kennedy Lake on the way to Tofino.

The Comox Valley-based rescue centre said feeding the bear was “a very bad idea.”

“Feeding the bear conditions it to accept food from people, so other people are at risk of an attack when they refuse food to the bear,” the centre said in a Facebook update.

“Feeding the bear is putting the bear at high risk of having to be euthanized because it’s become a problem bear or it has attacked someone.”

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@katslepian

katya.slepian@bpdigital.ca

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