Police fatally shoot black bear in Scarborough backyard
File photo of a Canadian black bear.
Digital Reporter
Saturday, May 13, 2017, 1:06 PM - Toronto police fatally shot a black bear early Saturday, after the bear was spotted wandering through backyards in Scarborough, Ont.
The 300-pound bear wandered through the residential area for nearly four hours, CBC News reports, prompting several calls reporting bear sightings late Friday.
Toronto Police Service took to Twitter urging locals to secure any food waste kept outdoors, adding that the bear was confirmed to not belong to the Toronto Zoo.
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.@ONresources is advising that residents in the area should secure garbage and compost as the bear may be foraging for food ^ma @TPS42Div
— Toronto Police OPS (@TPSOperations) May 13, 2017
Following a three-hour search, the bear was located in area of McCowan Road and Finch Avenue East close to 1 a.m.
A police official told the Toronto Star that the animal was passing through backyards and had banged on the door of a residence.
Const. Allyson Douglas-Cook, a media relations officer with Toronto Police Service, told CBC News that officers from 42 Division located and monitored the bear. Police then contacted the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources, Cook told the publication, but no officials were available to assist with the animal.
Emergency Task Force shot and killed the bear at around 2 a.m., roughly an hour after locating it, in a backyard near McCowan and Middlefield Roads.
"As you would imagine in a situation like this, our priority is public safety," Cook said to CBC. "In the interests of public safety, officers from the Emergency Task Force had to shoot the bear. It was dispatched, as we say," she added.
"That was the option that was available to us."
Toronto police officers do not have access to tranquilizer guns, Cook said, which could've been used to sedate the animal.
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No people or pets were reported injured, and a Toronto Zoo spokesperson confirmed all bears at the zoo were accounted for. It's yet to be determined where the bear came from.
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