meat is murder

Yes, avoid eating bear meat people it might injure you…or perhaps just don’t kill the bear in the first place and everyone involved carries on happy. In the following story a wildlife warden is in trouble for not putting down a bear because when released full of tranquilizers the meat might harm people…

Saving a sick black bear found Saturday in downtown Grants Pass has a local animal rehabilitator under investigation for possibly breaking wildlife rules while state biologists scramble to warn hunters against eating the bear’s tainted meat.

Wildlife Images Executive Director David Siddon acknowledged he did not receive Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife permission to release the bear Saturday near Galice after it was tranquilized and treated for an abscessed paw.

He couldn’t, Siddon said, because the local ODFW office is closed on weekends and he had to do something with the 147-pound bruin when it awoke from the tranquilizer cocktail used to capture it in a downtown alley.

“We had no place to hold it,” Siddon said. “The only other option was to kill the thing, and it didn’t seem like the right thing to do. This sounded like the best thing to do at the time,”.

But biologists said his actions violated the ODFW’s policy against releasing sick or injured bears over health and safety issues, especially injured adults.

“This bear could not have qualified for relocation,” ODFW wildlife biologist Mark Vargas said. “Our policy is this bear would have been euthanized.”

One of the tranquilizers used could linger in the bear’s system for as long as 30 days, so the meat could sicken someone if they shot and ate it before the end of bear season Dec. 31, Vargas said.

The Oregon State Police, whose troopers were present when the bear was darted, are investigating whether state wildlife regulations were violated.

Siddon downplayed the potential health impacts of eating the meat and said he’s just glad the bear survived.

“In a perfect world, this would have had a happy ending,” Siddon said. “But it’s us getting entangled in bureaucracy instead of good judgment.”

The bear was a non-lactating female with cinnamon-colored fur. When released eight miles up Bear Camp Road near Galice, the bear had spots of shaved hair on its right rear, its lower left rear leg and right front leg.

Any hunter who shoots the bear was urged to telephone a local ODFW office before consuming the meat, which could hold tranquilizer residue in its tissues for weeks.

One of the tranquilizers used was called xylazine. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration recommends waiting 30 days before killing an animal who has been tranquilized with xylazine and consuming the meat.

A second drug used, called telazol, has an FDA-recommended withdrawal period of 14 days. The third, called ketamine, has a three-day withdrawal period.

Medical Web sites say xylazine has been known to cause dizziness, chills and heart palpitations in humans, but cases of human ingestion are rare.

Siddon disputed the health concerns.

“If that dose would only keep a 147-pound bear down two hours long … I can’t imagine it could be a legitimate worry,” Siddon said.

The bear could be miles from its release site by now if healthy, or it could be lingering in the area if not, Vargas said.

The saga began at 8:30 a.m. Saturday when Siddon received a call from the OSP seeking help in removing an apparently sick and lethargic bear from an alley near the intersection of Seventh and F streets in Grants Pass.

Siddon, along with a veterinarian and a Wildlife Images assistant, went to the alley, darted the bear and loaded it in an SUV to be hauled to Siddon’s facility in Merlin for treatment.

Siddon said he was “pretty clear right off that bat” that Wildlife Images had no room for the bear and he was “pretty sure” he said it might be released, not killed.

Siddon said he does not recall troopers at the scene objecting. Siddon also said he believed the OSP would be “the next level of authority” under the ODFW for release permission in this case.

OSP Lt. Jeff Williams said Tuesday that the discussions between Siddon and the troopers will be part of their investigation.

“My understanding, from my sergeant, is that he was advised to consult with the ODFW, but I have not talked to the troopers (involved),” Williams said.

The troopers, Marty Marchand and Brad Bennett, were unavailable for comment Tuesday.

Vargas said he learned about the bear Monday morning from a weekend fax sent by an OSP dispatcher. When he learned from Wildlife Images that the animal was released, he notified state police, Vargas said.

Tom Thornton, the ODFW’s game program manager, said Siddon knows that “biologists need to make that call” whether to release a captured bear.

In general, violating the policy could lead to a review of Wildlife Images’ wildlife rehabilitation license, but Thornton said it was “premature” to determine whether a review will be conducted.

Siddon said the ODFW should have handled the entire response.

“There’s nobody working at (ODFW) on weekends, bottom line,” Siddon said. “We were just trying to help everybody.”

Reach reporter Mark Freeman - mfreeman@mailtribune.com.