GOLDEN I Boo the bear faces neutering after a short flight to, ahem, freedom

CanWest News Service
Published: Saturday, June 24, 2006

Passion and determination gave him freedom. But a tranquilizer dart from a helicopter took it away.

Boo the bear is back behind a fence at the Kicking Horse Mountain Resort near Golden, B.C., three weeks after he dug his way out of his nine-hectare compound and into the paws of a passing sow who loved him and left him. Now, in a bid to curb his wanderlust, Boo will be neutered.

"We finally had the opportunity for the first time since he was out, where he was in a wild open area, in a perfect situation, so we tranquilized him from the helicopter," said Michael Dalzell, a spokesman for the resort.

The four-year-old grizzly -- orphaned when a hunter shot his mother in 2002 -- had evaded capture since his June 5 escape.

Jim Pissot, of the Canmore-based Defenders of Wildlife Canada, said plans to castrate Boo to keep him behind a fence are "irresponsible and unprofessional."

"It appears they think that the surgery is going to do what the fence did not," said Pissot.