Earlier this week, a tragic lesson was learned–there are wild animals in the wilderness.
Sam Ives, an 11-year-old boy, was dragged from his tent in American Fork Canyon and mauled to death. The culprit was a black bear.
On Wednesday night, Sam’s grandfather, Eldon Ives, held a press conference to speak about how deeply affected he was by the incident, but also to pass blame onto the Division of Wildlife Resources. He called the fatal death of his grandson a “dry run.” It was reported that a black bear had attacked the same campsite just a day before.
Our first instinct is to ask the same question Eldon asked: if the DWR was informed just a day earlier of an aggressive bear, why wasn’t the campsite closed down? Why were warnings not brought to the attention of any camper in the Uintahs? In fact, why was there not a man with a bullhorn yelling daily or a plane skywriting the words “killer black bear?”
As the old saying goes, hindsight is 20/20. DWR will have a lot to answer for with the loss of such a young life, and ambulance chasers will be knocking on Eldon’s door to help the family’s grief in the form of a pat on the back and a lawsuit.
I feel horrible for the family and the mental images such an event will cast, but they don’t have a case, and they are not faultless.
In the Uintahs, every campsite gives harsh warnings that Utah is “black bear country.” Safety tips are offered. In every public bathroom the warnings are reiterated. Of course, no one can argue the worth of a bear over a human, but consider going into the black bear country as no different then breaking into your neighbor’s house. You’re playing by their rules. Humans may be the “ruling species,” but black bears don’t spend too much time reading Scientific America. Just like us, their top priorities are safety, food and family. If you get in the way of any one of the three, I’m sorry, but the consequences are your own.
DWR could have no doubt warned the world. Black bears are dangerous, destructive predators.
After this recent fatal event, the total number of Utah deaths at the paws of black bears in the last 150 years is? one. That’s right. Those at DWR are being reprimanded and put in shackles by the public for not doing their job, but in its entire history, DWR has allowed one solitary incident. What a terrible job it’s done!
Forget that within less than a day it was able to track a black bear deep into the wilderness and eventually eradicate the animal. It should have had snipers in towers beforehand with their fingers on triggers. I don’t see why campers should take the trouble to hang their food from trees or dispose of their cooking grease properly. This is our world–other animals just live in it.
There have been a total of 28 deaths by bears throughout North America this century. In comparison, there have been 67 times more deaths by canines. Should we walk neighborhoods and start shooting at barking dogs?
Let’s not turn into angry, torch-welding villagers after one isolated incident. Nothing will make the death of such a young child acceptable, but the DWR should not be burned at the stake. Even more so, black bears shouldn’t be thought of as vicious animals and hunted. Most campers know these bears are more afraid of us. Black bears are relatively small compared to their grizzly cousins, and far less aggressive.
As long as proper precautions are taken, we can go another 150 years before another fatal attack. Chances are, humans will have destroyed the earth long before then, anyway.
