Bears do not break in , do they??????

A northern Ontario family is still a little shaken after a bear attacked their home, ripping siding and insulation away from the exterior walls.

Terri Welch of Nobel, Ont., located 240 km north of Toronto, said on the first visit May 27, the bear ripped the screen door off.

When it returned June 25, it tore siding and insulation off the side of the house outside the living room.

Welch says they still don’t know why the bear acted that way or what it was looking for that night.

“He wanted in our house,” Welch said.

During the June attack, Welch was home alone with her children, aged 9, 5 and 2, and they stayed inside. She called a neighbour who helped scare it away. It returned later that night when her husband, Darcy, was home and that’s when they had to shoot and kill it.

“We had no choice,” Terri Welch said.

She said the Ministry of Natural Resources was unable to help them, only offering suggestions on how to keep bears away.

Welch said the family is used to bears in their backyard, but the animals usually just “hang out and leave.”

“Where we live, we know what to do, we know what not to do,” she said.

But she is concerned her children are “always going to be scared now. I know I am.”

A spokeswoman for the ministry said the province’s bear trap and relocate program was discontinued in 2011 because it was the “least-successful” program for dealing with trouble bears.

Instead, the MNR offers tips to homeowners for keeping bears away, such as putting garbage in containers with tight lids, avoiding planting food known to attract bears and removing grease and residue from barbecues.

“If a bear is hanging around, there’s obviously something that’s keeping it there,” said Jolanta Kowalski at the Ministry of Natural Resources.

If there is a public safety hazard, as in this case, homeowners should call the police.

“You do that no matter what or who is breaking into your house,” Kowalski said.

Lance Collins, a sales associate at Ramakko’s Tackle World in Sudbury, Ont., said pepper spray could have come in handy if the bear stuck its nose in a hole it made in house.

“He’s going to remember that and likely not come back.”

– with files from Carol Mulligan, Toronto Sun

Comments from readers

Damn! This proves that you are not even safe inside your own house! I am sure that it would have been nothing for the bear to break through the 2 X 4’s and the drywall. Bring back the spring bear hunt! The owner was definitely justified in killing the bear.
People building a cottage/house in bear country will need to use brick to stop the animals from breaking in through the walls.

Aye, Since Ont. closed Spring Bear Hunt by pressure from Shad Foundation
& Eco~Fascists about 15 yrs. ago, the population has EXPLODED. I
have pics form my trail cam from last fall with 5 bears in one frame.
Deer herds decimated as black bear eat up to 15% of fawn population each
spring. and of course Coyotes, Wolves running rampant. Ont. MNR are
useless when it comes to wildlife management!

The critter huggers are all patting each other on the back. For being ill-informed and not too bright…

and will cry for help once they have a problem bear. Next day go to media saying that excessive force was used by officials to deal with bear. I think most of these so called wild life/ eco managers live in nice square condo’s at least 10 floors up so they don’t even have to deal with squirrels, raccoons and skunks.

And you’re what i call wrong habitat is the most important element in wild life management and they chose to build in theirs so too bad !

Damn Hippie tree Hugger!!!!!!

Spring bear season just reopened this year. (males only!, no sows or cubs)

Coyote has no season…See’m, kill’m on sight (to all the treehuggers, there’s a reason why that’s allowed. Ask a farmer….)

Wolves, haven’t seen one south of North bay in decades.

Black Bears near city folk. Now THERE’S yer problem!, as a matter of fact it’s gotten so bad the bears are actually starving to death now do to over population and a lack of natural food, so they have to move into cities to feed on garbage, hence the huge increase recently in sightings in those cites and near schools.

See how that works?

have regular wolves in my backyard and by my shop ,, lovely creatures , but I am a wolf nut ,,, no problems we look at each other and leave each other alone ,,, Norland Ontario ,, a good 2hrs south of you , and yes a few black bears around always looking for the easy garbage can meal ,not bothersome , yet !!

Lots of wolves here in the Algonquin Highlands area. Many spotted and I hear them at night quite often.
Also amazing all the deer that are around after the harsh winter we’ve had. Big chipmunk and bear population explosion as well. Most females seen with 2 or 3 cubs. Just one of those cycle years I guess.

MNR…Managing Nothing, Really!!!

MNR is fine. Politicians stopping them from managing wildlife due to political concerns are useless.

We got too many deer anyway all the predators are they’re as natures wild life managers doing the job of culling the sink and the weak long before hunting was invented and shooting bears is childs play when you shoot something while it’s eating real sporting!

Oh really, when was hunting “invented”?

What an ignorant comment, Black bear mostly eat berries, fruit, nuts and plants, occasionally they’ll eat carrion (already dead animals, e.g road kill) VERY seldom will they ever attack and kill a full grown deer or even a fawn for that matter (I very much doubt they could catch it in order to kill it) the coyotes would’ve looked after them long before a black bear got around to it…

Try learning about the animal instead of just posting sheit you hear in your school classroom or from your friends on Facebook

Most of what you say is true. Bears,however are very quick and can whirl on a dime and give you change. They are also very fast runners. In Newfoundland they feed quite heavily on moose calves.

As far as HE goes yes. He is ignorant,ill informed and attempts to parrot what PETA spews. Problem is he can’t remember half of it and makes grammatical mish mash out of most of his posts.

Possibly the anti firearm Lieberals could study why the bear did this while calling the bear hot line for non existent help.
Me—–a 12 gauge with slugs will do just fine.

 

maybe Justin Turdeau could sit down with the bear and find out the root cause for it’s behavior and give it a big ol hug , me 30-30 ready for a pesky one , but would really have to be a problem before it came to that

Nah…the bear problem will balance itself….just like budget

Thanks for my morning laugh. Good one

Where’s our Toronto hipsters calling for the arrest that father and/or neighbour for killing that cuddly wuddly bear. Of course if there was a puppy dog at risk in the house instead of children (oh god the thought of actual children) then perhaps it might be ok, if but a little harsh.

I guess you shouldn’t build a house with no sheathing in bear country.

I noticed that too… How did it get passed inspection??? O wait.. it’s Noble.. never mind

He must have heard the husband calling his wife HONEY….and the bear decided it wanted HONEY ; )

Hmmmm, I wonder if there were any honey-bees in behind that siding?

As a beekeeper there is no sign of comb or bees.
Bear could smell what they had in the house.

I was just wondering Ian, thank-you. However, I also agree with the smell of something in the house. I don’t think bears do this on a whim.

They need to live trap and release the bears in Toronto’s off leash dog parks.

Kowalski…could it be the familys’ fault for having food in their house? Great help there,really…and pepper spray?? Right there..that is useless advice.Sell them a rifle! People are so gun-phobic they seem to forget that even if you are up north,in their habitat,whatever..if an animal like a bear gets too close, you kill it,not season it with pepper spray.Let the vegans cry over the dead bear and hug…its not Yogi and Boo Boo…there are children involved and no room for cry babies from Yorkville.

 There is one proven solution north,,,,,, shoot, shovel and shut up. End of bear end of story. Seems to work.

 Yep….MNR right on the ball….call the police…Natural Resources is SUPPOSED to look after wildlife problems but don’t call them out…they work days..
They are great at offering advice but not much good in the “doing ” something department.

Their advice is pretty lame as well…..

when we lived in Bracebridge a workmate stopped her car on a road just south of town when a bear cub ran onto the road. Suddenly mama bear was beside her car & up on her hind legs. This bear then smashed the windshield on the drivers side & dented the roof & hood. The lady drove off in a panic & when she arrived a work she was shaking & crying. Don’t mess with bears, especially those protecting their cubs.

Vinyl siding is cheap junk anyway.

Bring back the spring bear hunt.before somebody gets killed.

Time to kill bear.

He must have smelt the Moose sausage inside.

 you live in bear country, same as racoons, its life, deal with it, stop the belly aching, bears live all round me, am i a wimp, no, i deal with it, the more of you wimps that stay in the big smoke the better, makes me happy, if you cannot run with the big dogs stay on the porch