Bear encounters are becoming increasingly common in Paonia, and the situation took a deadly turn last week when a resident shot and killed a bear in his backyard.
Residents are hearing trash cans and dumpsters slamming to the ground, and waking up to the aftermath. Bear sightings in alleys and on streets have become scarily common, as bears struggle to find food in the wild amid this year’s early bloom and summer drought.
For one resident, the situation came to a head when a bear entered his yard. Neighbor Mandy Papke told KVNF she was asleep when the bear was shot, but saw the body in her neighbor's yard the following morning.
Papke says the neighbor told her that two bears had been coming through the area regularly. He said that the two bears were in his yard, and "went out to to try to scare them away and the one wasn't leaving.”
The shooting has drawn criticism on social media, although few details about what happened have been made public. Mandy felt that though her neighbor hadn’t provided an airtight reason for shooting the bear, she didn’t want to make assumptions. She told KVNF, "I kind of had compassion for him as well, just because I didn't know exactly the situation and what he had been experiencing when it happened, when he decided to shoot it.”
Colorado law states that bears cannot be killed when they are causing damage to personal property, including pets. They can only be killed when it is necessary to prevent them from inflicting death, damage or injury to livestock, human life, real property, or a motor vehicle. Whether the shooting in Paonia met that standard is part of the investigation.
The Paonia Police Department declined to comment, saying Colorado Parks and Wildlife is leading the investigation. KVNF has also requested comment from CPW and has not yet received a response.
For now, the circumstances surrounding the shooting remain under investigation. And without more information about what happened that night, it’s unclear whether the shooting will lead to charges.
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