Monrovia Mama Bear That Swiped At Dog Walker, Video Bombed Live Report Euthanized
A bear that was well known in the Southern California community and video bombed a reporter’s live shot was euthanized after it was believed to the bruin that swiped at a neighborhood dog walker.
Here’s KTLA TV, whose reporter Erin Myers was reporting about the bear, which had two cubs, when it emerged from a home’s yard to get some air time in her camera operator’s shot:
Officials with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife were already on site, monitoring the bear and attempting to trap it following an encounter a day earlier in which a woman walking her dog was scratched on the leg.
Police said the woman was walking her dog near the foothills of Monrovia when she was approached by a bear. During the encounter, the animal swiped its claw and made contact with the back of the woman’s knee, causing non-life-threatening injuries.
“The woman, the dog, and the bear were all kind of facing each other. She was screaming, the dog was barking its head off, and the bear was just kind of holding its ground,” said Jim, a neighbor who witnessed the event. “And I think it might have already scratched her leg.”
Monrovia, located along the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains northeast of Los Angeles, is no stranger to bear encounters, and as the Los Angeles Times reports, city leaders seemed to disagree with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife’s decision to kill the bear and thus orphan her cubs:
On Tuesday evening, Monrovia City Manager Dylan Feik announced that he had received a call from a California Department of Fish and Wildlife official notifying him that the mother bear had been euthanized. The agency did not respond to a request for comment Tuesday.
“I am sorry to share the unfortunate news,” Feik said in a statement. “The Monrovia City Council requested and lobbied for the bear and her cubs to be relocated into the Angeles National Forest but the decision was never the City’s to make.”
He added that by the time the city made contact with state officials, the decision to euthanize had already been made.
RIP to the bruin locals affectionately called Blondie. KTLA reported that the cubs are being held at a wildlife sanctuary with plans to try and relocate them and that CDFW officials told them the bear was euthanized to protect local residents.
