Conservation officer suspended for saving bear cubs
Conservation Officer Bryce Casavant has been suspended without pay pending a performance investigation after he refused to put down two bear cubs this weekend.

The baby bears, a brother and sister, were orphaned after their mother was put down after she had, at least twice, broken into a freezer of salmon and deer meat inside a mobile home on Hardy Bay Road. [in Port Hardy, British Columbia, Canada]

The babies were estimated to be about eight weeks and weigh 20 to 25 pounds, are healthy and still nursing.

Casavant made the decision to transport the bears down Island to the North Island Wildlife Recovery Association facility in Errington, as per provincial policy regarding bear cubs, despite an order that they be destroyed. "I think it is important for the community to know that I am here to do the right thing," said Casavant.

But there's a lot more to this story after a petition of 50,000 names protesting the suspension of the officer and leaked emails from his boss.

Ricky Gervais, public rally behind conservation officer who saved bear cubs
Two black bear cubs and the British Columbia conservation officer who disobeyed an order to kill them have become the focus of an international campaign to save his job.
From the BC Conservation Officer Service:
“This is a very unfortunate situation that conservation officers were forced to intervene and destroy a sow bear that was in conflict,” said Chris Doyle, acting deputy chief of the COS. “It’s a situation that no conservation officer wants to be in, but … it is at times necessary for conservation officers to protect public safety as well as look after animal welfare [and] to destroy problem animals such as bears and cougars.”

‘Needless destruction of a baby animal’: Hacked emails show B.C. conservation officer trying to save orphaned bear cubs from death
The subject line in the email sent to the media on Friday reads “Bryce.Casavant@gov.bc.ca HACK.” The email address from which it was sent is “hackweareanonymous@hushmail.com.” A portion of the email reads:

“Turns out our international bear hero was telling the truth. The people have spoken.”

The attached correspondence begins July 3. In one email, sent on that same day, Casavant is told that the cubs, whose mother was earlier killed by officers for breaking into a meat freezer at a residential home, “need to be euthanized asap” as they were “garbage habituated.”
[...]

“Negative,” the response reads. “Final decision has been made by (redacted) and you have rec’d direction re: what you need to do. I know how hard these scenarios are Bryce, and I appreciate your good intentions but sometimes this is the outcome we need to take.”

Two days later, Casavant is asked for an update on the “garbage habituated cubs.” Casavant responds that his assessment is that the cubs have “not accessed garbage,” due largely to their young age.

“Furthermore, within the conflict matrix they have not posed a risk to public safety at this time and do not fall within the destruction category,” Casavant wrote on July 5. “My primary mandate is public safety and the immediate threat has been removed (ie. the sow). My duties as a law enforcement officer do not include the needless destruction of a baby animal that can be rehabilitated.”

Within an hour, Casavant is told via email that he has been removed from the file “effective immediately” and to transfer the bears to the care of another conservation officer.

On July 8, 2015, Bryce Casavant has his pay re-instated but his suspension is ongoing, according to a statement by his union. All this news about the treatment of "problem bears" leads to a focus on just how many bears are being killed in the Province of BC. The results of some investigative journalism leads to the BC Ministry of the Environment stats of just how many predators are being killed. The numbers are startling! In the past four years:

Cougars 352
Grizzlies 72
Black Bears 1,872

But wait a minute, the number of cubs and kits are not even counted.

July 13, 2015
B.C. conservation officers criticized for ‘cavalier’ killing of predators: Hundreds of cougars, grizzlies and black bears are killed each year
Conservation officers destroy predators thought to pose a threat to people and property, with liability concerns high in their minds.

Critics argue that B.C. officers are too quick to shoot — especially young cubs that can be successfully rehabilitated.

“I don’t know of any jurisdiction that takes such a cavalier attitude about killing conflict bears as B.C., and none that routinely kill cubs of conflict bears,” said John Beecham, a consultant and bear biologist retired from the Idaho Department of Fish and Game.

The province says it does not record how many cubs and kittens were among those killed.

As far as I know, the officer is still suspended with pay and the Minister of the Environment, Mary Polak is under scrutiny about the way the Conservation Officers are killing untold numbers of predators if we count the cubs and kits that are being put down. Her main concern right now is approving giant LNG plants in the province. The bear cubs are thriving in their enclosure at the North Island Wildlife Recovery Association in Errington, B.C. They are interacting with other cubs and their contact with humans is very limited. They should be successfully introduced into the wild when they are old enough. Then they will face more Conservation Officers, forest fires and hunters. But let's hope they have a wild fling before that.

Most human and predator conflicts can be avoided if people close to wilderness areas would secure food supplies and carefully dispose of their garbage. Sometimes predators are killed just for being sighted near a trail. A few years ago when we were walking down a trail in East Sooke Park and we heard a branch snap and saw a cougar rushing in the other direction. We did not call a Conservation Officer.