District man taking care of bears

FORT FRANCES—To most, bears are a nuisance that eat our garbage, wreck our yards, and scare us into our homes at first sight.
But to Mike Scheibler, bears are not only kind and friendly, they also have endearing personalities and many positive qualities.
On top of running a motocross track, Scheibler also maintains a wildlife sanctuary for all animals just outside of Emo. Whether they be deer, rabbits, raccoons, owls, or, most importantly, bears, all are welcome.
He has been feeding the wildlife in his backyard for the last seven years and hosts many people from around the world who come to share in this intimate practice free of charge.
Scheibler did not intend for this to happen at first, especially not to this degree.
A few years back, Scheibler and his wife were praying to find a piece of property located at the end of a dead-end road which they could purchase. They always had been fond of wildlife and really wanted a parcel of land that would see limited traffic so as to not scare away the animals.
In moving to their new home just off of Off Lake Road, the Scheiblers were anxious to get closer to the deer—and maybe even see the odd bear.
Scheibler is careful to stress they only ever dreamed to “see” the occasional bear and nothing more. But what happened next was nothing they could have predicted.
“The first spring I had put some bread and stuff out for the deer and they hadn’t picked everything up,” he recalled. “So the bears started to come in and get it.”
He remembered a time when a bear came right up to the screen door and began sniffing at his daughter. His wife and daughter were cooing at it and talking to the bear, and showed no sign of fear towards him.
Scheibler laughed as he remembered thinking, “You guys are nuts!”
By the time fall came around, the bears started to show up more and more often. “Picking up his socks and his courage,” Scheibler began to toss bread to them over a screen fence he had built around his deck.
As they ate the scraps, he started to feel the thrill.
The following year, when he found himself out in the yard alone, two or three bears surrounded him.
“I had nowhere to go so I just obeyed my senses,” he recalled, careful to remember detail. “I just got on my knees and I stayed there, and I started to talk to them.
“Lo and behold, they came right up to me and they started feeding right from my hand. I just could not believe this!” exclaimed Scheibler.
As frightened as he was at first, he soon came to realize there was not much to be scared of. There was something different going on with the bears that he could sense.
He decided this was not something normal that others often encounter but insisted that regardless, in his backyard, it is very real and happens to him now every day.
Being a religious man, Scheibler turned to his Bible and found the passage in Isaiah: 11 which read that one day all of the creatures in the world would live together and work together, creating harmony and peace, bringing society back to how it was in the early days of Creation.
This is where the big idea for the sanctuary was born. From then on, Scheibler called his backyard “Isaiah: 11 Last Days Wildlife Sanctuary.”
“I knew I found something different,” he stressed. “I see it going on here and others [who have visited the sanctuary] from all over the world have sensed the same thing.”
This year alone, Scheibler claimed that a few hundred people from all over have visited his property. He noted every American state, except Hawaii and Alaska, have been represented so far.
On top of that, he’s met people from England, Holland, Germany, Portugal, and all of Canada’s provinces. What’s more, he’s expecting a group from Vietnam and another from the Philippines in the near future.
Scheibler said only half of those who come to visit are religious and believe this has to do with prophecy. But he added the other 50 percent who are not religious still admit there’s something special going on.
Most notably, people notice how calm the bears are—and how willing they are to get close in such a kind and almost affectionate way.
But regardless of his faith, Scheibler insisted he’s not being stupid about anything.
“I’ve never taken anything for granted. I’ve never assumed anything,” he remarked, asserting he does not forget he’s dealing with animals that are largely seen as dangerous.
“There is common sense involved in this besides having total faith.”
For instance, when he sees a new bear for the first time, he’s always wary of them—studying their body language and reactions to his movements and words.
Once he did come across a dangerous bear, which not only caused Scheibler to hide but also prompted the rest of the bears present to scatter.
“I saw something different about that bear,” he recalled. “I [felt] something different and I knew there was danger.”
But, he said, even that bear eventually calmed down and began to respect what he was doing there.
“There are some bears that take a little longer. Some I don’t know, maybe they had a bad experience with people,” Scheibler remarked. “But I’m telling you, most sooner or later come to me.
“Most sooner than later,” he added.
That being said, Scheibler still is very careful not to be forceful with the bear, again realizing it is a wild animal.
“I never have an animal do something it doesn’t want to do,” he stressed, noting some of the bears won’t eat from his hand while others won’t do it any other way.
“I will never push the envelope and say, you know, ‘Today I’m going to ride you,’” he laughed. “No, I let them do what they want to do.”
Scheibler feeds the bears a variety of foods, such as bread, doughnuts, eggs, yogurt, and produce. And when things are looking extra sparse, he buys dog food.
He reserves the special treats, like doughnuts, for when people are around and looking to get a closer look. For the most part, however, he keeps them on a pretty healthy diet to keep them in good health with nice, glossy coats.
To keep up with the demand for food, the daily trips to Fort Frances to pick up supplies, and the energy bill he pays for keeping multiple stocked freezers, Scheibler does accept donations from those who visit his sanctuary but it is not obligatory.
The main thing to him is that the bears—and all of the other animals—are taken care of and have food to eat even in times like this when seasons produce less food.
(Fort Frances Times)