The short version:
A small town in Colorado is upset because someone shot a bear that was wandering around town.
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>
"We were sitting down at the park when this big brown thing - I thought it was a dog at first - went by," Clark said. "We followed it down the street in our car until it turned down an alley."
By 10 p.m., the crowd following the bear had swelled to the point that Johnson was concerned....[/quote]
It's always a really good idea to follow a wild bear around. Maybe they thought Yogi knew where the really good picnic baskets are.
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>"We were talking to him," John Follis said. "I was saying, 'Come on, boy, come on.' But he just made a gesture and turned around and ran the other way."[/quote]
Now, *there's* a good idea. Coax the bear into coming to you. Maybe you can pet it! (I wonder what kind of gesture Yogi was making!)
http://gazette.com/daily/top1.html
The long version:
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Simla growls over bear's death
By Todd Hegert/The Gazette
Edited by Mike Braham; headline by Jeanne Davant/The Gazette
SIMLA - Small towns have a way of guarding their secrets, and in Simla, nobody's saying who killed the bear.
Police Chief Buddy Johnson knows who shot the wayward bear Thursday morning on a ranch along Big Sandy Creek just outside of town, but he refused to say who it was.
Town Clerk Carolyn Hamacher almost spilled the beans, but a last-minute call to Chief Johnson dissuaded her.
Erin Krutchi, a clerk at J.B.'s Quickmart, knows who did it, but she wasn't talking, either.
Even the Division of Wildlife won't say who it was, except that it was a rancher - one who was acting within his rights.
The bear was - depending on whose story you believe - either attacking a calf in a small herd of cattle or merely sniffing around.
"Either way, the rancher has the right to dispatch a bear near livestock," said Michael Seraphin, a public information officer with the Department of Wildlife. "One of the only reasons you can kill a bear out of season in Colorado is depredation of livestock."
By the time of its demise, the bear had become a celebrity in Simla, a town of 600 residents 48 miles northeast of Colorado Springs. The night before, a crowd of about 50 people had gathered to get a glimpse of the bear, and those who weren't there heard about it.
"The whole town was like - ," said Krutchi, finding herself at a loss for words. "It was like the biggest thing that has happened in the town's history, or it least in quite a while."
The saga began early Tuesday morning when a resident found the bear eating dog food in his garage and called the Division of Wildlife. Wildlife officer Steve Cooley and Chief Johnson searched for the bear, but to no avail.
The bear resurfaced that evening.
Roge "Little Rock" Clark was with a group of teens about 8 p.m. when he saw it.
"We were sitting down at the park when this big brown thing - I thought it was a dog at first - went by," Clark said. "We followed it down the street in our car until it turned down an alley."
By 10 p.m., the crowd following the bear had swelled to the point that Johnson was concerned.
"It was more of a people problem than a bear problem at that time," he said.
He called the Division of Wildlife to see if the bear could be tranquilized and transported out of town. But the division chose not to do that because darting bears in the dark poses dangers for the bear, Seraphin said. Instead, wildlife officers told Johnson to disperse the crowd and let the bear leave on its own.
But Wednesday morning, James Follis, who owns J.B.'s Quickmart, and his father, John, saw the bear wandering down the street.
"We were talking to him," John Follis said. "I was saying, 'Come on, boy, come on.' But he just made a gesture and turned around and ran the other way."
The bear's path out of town took it into ranchland near Big Sandy Creek, where it was shot at about 10 a.m., the Division of Wildlife said.
The news spread quickly through town Wednesday. Karan Clark, Little Rock's mother, got the word down at the post office.
"I went home and my daughters and I cried for an hour," she said.
Clark and other residents expressed anger Thursday that the bear had not been tranquilized and moved the day before.
"I can't help but think that because we're just a little 'hick' town, that the wildlife people didn't pay us much attention," Clark said.
That's not true, Seraphin said.
"We responded as soon as we got the first call Tuesday, and we didn't ignore the situation Wednesday," Seraphin said. "The fact of the matter is that it's not unusual for an occasional bear to wander out there, and 99 percent of the time nature remedies itself if the bears are left to wander back west to the foothills."
[/quote]
[This message has been edited by CindyH (edited June 23, 2000).]
A small town in Colorado is upset because someone shot a bear that was wandering around town.
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>
"We were sitting down at the park when this big brown thing - I thought it was a dog at first - went by," Clark said. "We followed it down the street in our car until it turned down an alley."
By 10 p.m., the crowd following the bear had swelled to the point that Johnson was concerned....[/quote]
It's always a really good idea to follow a wild bear around. Maybe they thought Yogi knew where the really good picnic baskets are.
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>"We were talking to him," John Follis said. "I was saying, 'Come on, boy, come on.' But he just made a gesture and turned around and ran the other way."[/quote]
Now, *there's* a good idea. Coax the bear into coming to you. Maybe you can pet it! (I wonder what kind of gesture Yogi was making!)
http://gazette.com/daily/top1.html
The long version:
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Simla growls over bear's death
By Todd Hegert/The Gazette
Edited by Mike Braham; headline by Jeanne Davant/The Gazette
SIMLA - Small towns have a way of guarding their secrets, and in Simla, nobody's saying who killed the bear.
Police Chief Buddy Johnson knows who shot the wayward bear Thursday morning on a ranch along Big Sandy Creek just outside of town, but he refused to say who it was.
Town Clerk Carolyn Hamacher almost spilled the beans, but a last-minute call to Chief Johnson dissuaded her.
Erin Krutchi, a clerk at J.B.'s Quickmart, knows who did it, but she wasn't talking, either.
Even the Division of Wildlife won't say who it was, except that it was a rancher - one who was acting within his rights.
The bear was - depending on whose story you believe - either attacking a calf in a small herd of cattle or merely sniffing around.
"Either way, the rancher has the right to dispatch a bear near livestock," said Michael Seraphin, a public information officer with the Department of Wildlife. "One of the only reasons you can kill a bear out of season in Colorado is depredation of livestock."
By the time of its demise, the bear had become a celebrity in Simla, a town of 600 residents 48 miles northeast of Colorado Springs. The night before, a crowd of about 50 people had gathered to get a glimpse of the bear, and those who weren't there heard about it.
"The whole town was like - ," said Krutchi, finding herself at a loss for words. "It was like the biggest thing that has happened in the town's history, or it least in quite a while."
The saga began early Tuesday morning when a resident found the bear eating dog food in his garage and called the Division of Wildlife. Wildlife officer Steve Cooley and Chief Johnson searched for the bear, but to no avail.
The bear resurfaced that evening.
Roge "Little Rock" Clark was with a group of teens about 8 p.m. when he saw it.
"We were sitting down at the park when this big brown thing - I thought it was a dog at first - went by," Clark said. "We followed it down the street in our car until it turned down an alley."
By 10 p.m., the crowd following the bear had swelled to the point that Johnson was concerned.
"It was more of a people problem than a bear problem at that time," he said.
He called the Division of Wildlife to see if the bear could be tranquilized and transported out of town. But the division chose not to do that because darting bears in the dark poses dangers for the bear, Seraphin said. Instead, wildlife officers told Johnson to disperse the crowd and let the bear leave on its own.
But Wednesday morning, James Follis, who owns J.B.'s Quickmart, and his father, John, saw the bear wandering down the street.
"We were talking to him," John Follis said. "I was saying, 'Come on, boy, come on.' But he just made a gesture and turned around and ran the other way."
The bear's path out of town took it into ranchland near Big Sandy Creek, where it was shot at about 10 a.m., the Division of Wildlife said.
The news spread quickly through town Wednesday. Karan Clark, Little Rock's mother, got the word down at the post office.
"I went home and my daughters and I cried for an hour," she said.
Clark and other residents expressed anger Thursday that the bear had not been tranquilized and moved the day before.
"I can't help but think that because we're just a little 'hick' town, that the wildlife people didn't pay us much attention," Clark said.
That's not true, Seraphin said.
"We responded as soon as we got the first call Tuesday, and we didn't ignore the situation Wednesday," Seraphin said. "The fact of the matter is that it's not unusual for an occasional bear to wander out there, and 99 percent of the time nature remedies itself if the bears are left to wander back west to the foothills."
[/quote]
[This message has been edited by CindyH (edited June 23, 2000).]
