Duane Hicks
While dealing with wildlife is all part of living in Northwestern Ontario, sometimes it can be un-“bear”-able.
Just ask Idylwild Drive residents Jim and Kathy Cuthbertson, who were among those rejoicing Monday morning after a black bear that had been loitering in their neighbourhood for the past month was caught in a live trap on their property.
The live trap was set up Friday by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry after the Cuthbertsons made multiple calls about the bear.
“We called the town. They can’t do nothing about it,” said Jim Cuthbertson. “We called the OPP—they can’t do nothing about it.
“They called the MNR and they said, ‘The guy is on holidays’ or something like that,” he recalled.
“Finally, we called [local MPP] Sarah Campbell,” Cuthbertson added, noting he made the point clear that the bear—which had been showing up at all times of day—was too much a threat to area residents, especially children.
“That was the biggest issue. We couldn’t get anybody to deal with it,” he stressed.
Cuthbertson said they also called the “Bear Wise” hotline but only were given advice such as “Don’t feed it”—advice he feels already is common sense to any Northwestern Ontario resident.
After the Cuthbertsons phoned Campbell, local MNR biologist Darryl McLeod showed up last Thursday and spoke with the Cuthbertsons.
The following day, the MNRF brought a live trap to their property.
On Monday morning, the Cuthbertsons found the bear had taken the bait and was caught in the live trap.
Jim Cuthbertson admitted it’s not unusual for a bear or two to pass through each fall.
“It’s no big deal,” he remarked. “They munch a few apples and then they’re gone.
“But this one was staying.
“It was living just in the bush here, just across the road,” Cuthbertson noted.
“The dog could smell it—the dog gets nervous when the bear’s around.”
The bear had made a nuisance of itself over the past month, searching for food on people’s porches, getting into garbage cans (residents starting putting their cans into their garages), and knocking down the fence to the Cuthbertsons’ chicken pen several times (no chickens were hurt).
But more worrying was the potential threat the bear posed to residents’ safety.
“We were getting a little annoyed with it,” Cuthbertson said. “Somebody was going to get hurt and that’s what you don’t want.”
Kathy Cuthbertson noted their neighbour, Sarah Faragher, has two school-aged children, and in the mornings or after school, when the bus was picking them up or dropping them off, the bear sometimes was in the yard.
One of the Cuthbertsons’ daughters, Katie Stus, lives in a separate house on the same property as her parents and found even walking back and forth between their homes could be a little nerve-wracking.
“It was like, ‘Okay, so do I run with my baby?’” she recalled.
“One day I was walking and looking at the garbage in their yard, and there was the bear right in front of their steps,” said Kathy Cuthbertson.
“The kids haven’t even been able to play outside lately,” she added.
“It was getting too friendly,” agreed Jim Cuthbertson. “And you can’t ever trust a bear.”
Residents who see a bear are asked to call the MNRF’s “Bear Wise” hotline at 1-866-514-2327.
