The bear was shot and killed because it was a black bear. Had that been a polar bear, it'd been trapped and released back into the wild.

The game warden is obviously racist.

Right on Charles! I agree.

Little-known fact: Black bears almost never hunt. They're opportunistic eaters; they mostly graze on grass, berries & carrion, though they have been known to take out abandoned fawns. These are hardly the ruthless, dominant killers that Grizzlies are. In fact, I've seen little kids intimidate these bears. The article mentioned the bear was quite underweight; it must have been truly desperate to attack a human.

Yeah, it's awful, but I don't know what else you're supposed to do. Bears that find food in dumpsters and camps learn to eat food out of dumpsters and camps. I'm no expert, but I would imagine that bears that attack humans and get a tasty bicep/face out of the deal would learn to attack/eat humans. Why else did that bear *chase down* that bicyclist? Probably not just because he got to close to its cubs.

Because the bear was pacing around and not intimidated when more people arrived, and because it is not normal bear behavior to hunt large game, I'd say this bear was crazy. Poor, mentally ill bear.

Typical liberal-media pro-bear agenda!

Sandy -

You mean like bi-polar bear disorder?

Hey Nigga Scholar, That student you ignore has been asking some rightous questions that you are afraid to answer. Now that we have a black woman secretary of state, and the son of Zimbabwe royalty putting out vanity movies who's oppressed now?

Isn't it time cry baby middle class blacks get over themselves and get a sense of humor about the "N" word? Why can everyone use faggot including your editor and the precious Hip Hop bands you promote (who write songs about beating up fags) but no one can say the "n" word?

smarm, that was cold.

Speaking of Condi. Check out Andrew Sullivan's posting on Condi Rice's top ten plays on her I-Pod. I note that Condi has no Hip Hop favorites, but does have Brahms and Beethoven. If Condi favors Beethovan over Hip Hop is she racist too? Any comment Charles?

Allen/Student/Etc,

It's not an outsider's place to tell someone else when it's appropriate to "get over" something, especially when that "thing" has historically been used in extremely negative connotations. But perhaps you're the type of person who would scream the "get over it" thing to a rape victim after they'd arbitrarily decided it was time for them to "be over it".

And, for the record, there are people I allow to call me faggot, but they're the minority. Thinking that "everybody" can use it at any time in any place in any context is asinine.

I have a question though - why is it so important to Student/Allen/Etc to be able to use that word? What's your motivation? Something tells me it's not a search for equality.

I have no idea what's going on in this thread. Anyway, I actually grew up in Banff, Alberta, where this happened. Banff as a whole is a national park, and as such, park employees treat animals like royalty for the most part. I'm sad that it had to come to killing the bear instead of maybe tranquilizing it, but like the article says, it's a very rare occurrence that something like this will happen.

Face it Jizosh, racism played a part in why that bear was shot. Charles knows it, you know it and the whole damn world knows it. Black bears are more threating than their polar opposites.

Actually, in spite of their name, many black bears are actually brown, cinnamon, or even blond. I guess black comes in all colors.

Roscha,

The Stranger used "Hey Faggot" for years and told whiners that complained "get over it". So yes you can tell people to get over being victims. The question is when are middle class blacks making good money going to get a sense of humor about "nigga" which has saturated our media - music, tv and film? Fags got over faggot.