Bear Haven

We all know that I like animals. There's a few animals that are especially dear to my heart. Bears are on that list. If there's a bear on a show, I'll probably be watching. I watched all those Growing up Grizzly shows and I was on team Aniston after watching her followup episode when she started getting a teary eyed....not in fear, but just emotional. I thought I was the only one that did that. So of course I watched this show about a retired school teacher in Alaska that has created a bear haven. He has a cabin, which he opens up in spring, and basically hangs out with bears. He feeds them and they all come in like pets. Some of the bears even can come inside! Because he feeds them, they have become like circus bears. Complete strangers can come in and mingle with the bears. My problem is the feeding of bears. He's taking perfectly fine wild bears who can hunt and survive and changing them into beggars. Besides, how can a diet of probably just dog food be good for bears over an extended period of time. What happens when Charlie dies? See, I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt that he won't be attacked viciously. I believe that he can read the bears and makes smart decisions regarding their behavior. These bears will go hungry when Charlie is gone. Plus having such a density of bears together is not good. Fights break out and bears get hurt. Won't these bears be easy pickens for the local bear hunters? I understand where he is coming from, but I think he's being selfish. Charlie says it's a fairy land and in a sense it would be a fairy land for me. But in the long run, this is not the best interest for the bears. I would rather have him create a bear sanctuary for former circus or pet bears or orphaned cubs. He would still have close contact but would allow the wild bears to be.


Most of the time the closest I get to bears is seeing things like this. Bear prints. Too bad about the human heel print but I guess it gives a good size perspective. I saw these prints today after scrambling down a very steep embankment to a river. The funny thing is that I was in the middle of a little historic downtown and not in the middle of the wilderness. It really was one of the last things I was expecting.