Time to let nature take its course
MetroValley Newspaper Group
Tue 04 Jul 2006
Page: 0004
Section: Abbotsford News - Opinion
Byline: Mark Rushton
If you've been following the news stories about Boo the bear, I think you'll agree the more this tale goes on, the more disturbing it becomes.
First, the grizzly breaks out of his pen by digging under the wire.
Seems he caught wind of a passing female and, love smitten, away he went.
Of course that PO'd the resort operators who, I'd guess, find having a grizzly on location an excellent tourist draw, so they sent out the SWAT team.
Eventually the amorous Boo was darted with tranquilizers and hauled back to captivity.
Since there's money in tourism, and a complacent bear is a nice feature, they were deciding if the best course of action to keep him docile and in place was to castrate him.
In the meantime, they put Boo in a cage, only to have him bust out again to hook up with his 'hottie in the high country'.
I find this whole thing sick . . . here is a grizzly bear doing what he's supposed to be doing: perpetuating his species. And these guys want to neuter him, take away his life force, so he'll be a placid tourist attraction. Maybe next they'll decide to declaw him so he can't dig his way out, and perhaps grind his teeth down so he can't bite too hard.
Well, it won't destroy his memories of freedom.
To back that point, here's a little story for you: I have a 36 year old gelding that still thinks he's a stud. Let anything get between him and his mare - even my calves - and he has a conniption. Another horse comes on the property and he charges around like he's the herd stallion . . . and he lost the ability, but obviously not the memory more than 30 years ago.
So parting Boo with his privates isn't going to much lessen the urge to seek out the scent of the next gorgeous grizz that wafts by on the breeze.
The real issue, however, is that this is a grizzly doing what comes naturally, what he was born to do. People loudly rant against the hunting of grizzlies because they may be endangered, yet I haven't heard anything against this commercial operation that thinks it "owns" this animal, wanting to castrate it so they can keep it in a pen.
This is in the best interest of the bear?
Might as well kill him.
Since Boo has been "tripping the light fantastic" he's learned how to forage, is learning how to procreate, and is fulfilling his birthright.
Human intervention saved his life when he was an orphaned cub, but now it's time to let him be free.
And if it doesn't work out . . . if he starts killing livestock or threatening people, then shoot him.
That would be a fate better than being neutered to rot away his life in a pen dreaming of freedom lost.
If you think I'm off the wall, email me.
If you support Boo's freedom, email Environment Minister Barry Penner, and tell him to let Boo complete the destiny of his birth.