Note: The News Courier initially broke the story of the wandering bear in Sunday's print and online editions and was first to post the story of the bear's slaying online Sunday.
Sue Cooper was awakened just before midnight Saturday by the sound of gunfire near her home in Vestavia subdivision.
“I knew what had happened,” said Cooper, whose voice shook with tears and a controlled anger Sunday.
What she had assumed turned out to be correct. Travis Gray, an officer with U.S Fish & Wildlife Service had shot and killed a male black bear that had been seen in the neighborhood since Friday night.
“They had shot it coming down out of the tree,” Cooper said. “He had shot it four times. I watched them when they tied ropes to its legs drug it through the yard and threw it in the back of the truck.”
Cooper’s first word to Gray was: “Why?”
She and other residents had been told hours earlier when the hunt for the bear began that it would be humanely trapped.
“Travis said he had called their biologist to get a formula for a tranquilizer,” Cooper said. Gray told Cooper he killed the bear because there was no way to tranquilize it.
“That’s not true,” Cooper said. “It was a tagged bear. They said it was migrating from Florida. That means it had been tranquilized. I’m sure that bear didn’t stand there and say ‘OK, put the tags in my ears.’”
Cooper said although at least one neighbor thought having a bear in the neighborhood was a safety issue, she does not agree. The bear is nocturnal, she said, only coming out at about 11 at night.
“All the bear wanted to do was go find something to eat. If they’d left it alone it would have kept migrating,” she said.
Also, she said no young children live in that part of the subdivision, which is off the northern portion of Lucas Ferry Road, about 20 miles from Wheeler Wildlife Refuge.
“Bears aren’t aggressive unless they do have a cub with them,” she said.
Initially, residents thought the bear might have a cub and contacted authorities Friday. However, Cooper now believes movement she saw near the bear might have been its foot rather than a cub.
One resident estimated the bear was about 250 to 300 pounds and about 6-feet tall.
Cooper said she still can’t imagine why they shot the animal.
“They could have tranquilized it,” she said. "They just didnt want to go that extra effort."
