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Dustin Lauver says he went to investigate and took his wife's .22 caliber rifle. "I could see my dog hopping on his back legs. I shot up in the air and away, two warning shots, and still seen it going on like I didn't bother either of them," he said.
Lauver says he walked to his truck and soon saw something coming at him. "I dIdn't even hesitate, I squeezed the trigger," he said. "I told my wife to get inside and she's freaking out."
Lauver said he soon realized that he had shot and killed a black bear and called the Pennsylvania Game Commission. Officers hauled off a 222 pound female and left Lauver with a $500 fine for poaching a bear out of season.
"He didn't know what he was shooting at, so this is reckless behavior," said Jerry Feaser, a Game Commission spokesman. "There is no inherent right to automatically kill wildlife that enters your property."
The fine for the crime ranges from $500 to $1,500. The Game Commission says they kept the penalty on the low end because Lauver cooperated, but the couple is struggling financially and says even $500 is too much.
"I don't understand why I gotta get a fine and get penalized for protecting myself, that's what I don't understand," he said.
"It's wrong," Mary Lauver said. "It's like they can't catch a real poacher, they've gotta blame an innocent person. We called them."
The bear was probably going for the dog food left outside. The Game Commission reminds homeowners that bears are trying to fatten up at this time of year and they encourage them to bring in pet food or bird feeders and clean barbecue grills.
THE HIGHLIGHTS OF THE ARTICLE ARE THIS:
"You're allowed to shoot a bear in defense of life or property," he said. "Obviously if it's attacking a dog that would be the time to do it, but you have to know what you're doing," he said, adding that a misfired gun in a residential area could pose more of a threat to humans than to a bear.
He said it is extremely unusual for them to prey on dogs, especially one tethered to a house.
They walk past thousands of dogs. They are walking through and by people's backyards all the time. If they wanted to eat dogs, they could fill up on dogs every day. They wouldn't have to be tied up. Just about any dog could be pulled down by a bear," Sinnott said. "It's pretty unusual. Bears, for the most part, are after the easy stuff like garbage and birdseed. They'll even go into chicken coops, eat the chicken food and leave the chickens alone."
He said while Casper's being eaten is tragic, it doesn't necessarily mean the bear that ate him is dangerous or going to do it again.
"One time I wouldn't call it a threat. If we see a pattern, if it does it again and we think it's the same bear, then obviously that's definitely a whole different situation. It might have killed it just because it was yapping at it," Sinnott said, adding that there have not been any additional reports of area bears attacking dogs.
INSTEAD OF SPOUTING OUT "SCARY STORIES" for effect, include all of the facts.
Black bears are the least carnivorous of the North American carnivores (that means meat eaters--for those who didn't finish elementary school)......they generally eat items growing in the area, trash, and carcasses (that means the animal was already dead folks)...very rarely do they "attack" and hunt their food.
He said it's the human's responsibility to be the more responsible one by keeping bear attractants such as birdseed, garbage and dog food secure from April through October when bears are most active.
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