Almost two dozen black bears were put down in Quesnel in 2023

There were a total of 22 black bears destroyed in Quesnel last year.

That number comes from the The Fur-Bearers, a non-partisan, registered charity that used the freedom of information legislation to access the data from the BC Conservation Officer Service.

That was up from just 2 in 2022.

There were 19 in 20-21 and 20 in 2020.

Lesley Fox, the Executive Director with the Fur-Bearers, encourages people to do their part to reduce these numbers, including removing any attractants for bears.

“There’s lots of conversation around garbage. Garbage containers, how garbage is collected, locking mechanisms, prioritizing education, and enforcement is a really big one. Ticketing people who attract dangerous wildlife, which is an offence under the Wildlife Act.”

Fox says she is disappointed that this year the information for a lot of communities was unavailable.

“Following a deadly year for black bears in British Columbia, we expected to see the familiar names of communities where issues remain unresolved. Unfortunately, this year the BC COS only provided 10 communities-and did not tell us where they killed 356 of the alarming 603 black bears killed.”

Fox is calling for more accountability.

“We’re calling on the BC COS to begin publishing bear kill statistics monthly, by location, for the public to see. There is now way for communities to do better when they don’t know there’s a problem.”

The list of black bear deaths submitted by the Conservation Officer Service shows that the Cariboo and northern BC regions are well represented.

Here is the full breakdown of black bear deaths by community:

Prince George 76
Kamloops 31
Mackenzie 28
Smithers 24
Quesnel 22
Burns Lake 17
Vanderhoof 17
Squamish 11
Fort St. James 11
Fraser Lake 10

(Files by Brendan Pawliw-MyPGNow)