Pepper Spray Not Enough To Stop A Charging Grizzly

[Bruce Deile]

To the Editor: May 6, 2009

Re:'Former Professor Working to Preserve Local Bear Population'(Western Front WWU newspaper; 5/5/09): When asked "How do you keep yourself safe while working around bears?", Chris Morgan responded that he knows bear behavior intimately and is respectful. "I don't approach them; I allow them to make the moves." Morgan also mentioned bear proof containers and pepper spray for bear safety.

It would be helpful if those doing good work for bear preservation admitted that pepper spray may not be enough to stop a charging grizzly. When Anchorage, Alaska had numerous bear attacks last year, local government wildlife officials responded with firearms, not just pepper spray. Similarly, as Glacier National Park has the most bear attacks in the contiguous U.S., GNP rangers responded with firearms. Yet since firearms are prohibited in Glacier National Park, the general public is advised to use pepper spray.

This double standard was a big reason why George Bush enacted federal law allowing firearms in national parks before he left office. After Obama was elected, that was immediately ruled unconstitutional purportedly because environmental concerns were not given proper scrutiny. Practically speaking, this means the issue most likely will be shelved indefinitely as people continue to be mauled in Glacier National Park.

As difficult as it is to argue for firearms given the horrific trauma caused by gun violence, allowing firearms in national parks, specifically in this instance for bear defense, was a step in the right direction. Remember world famous bear photographer Michio Hoshino. A grizzly killed and ate him in his tent on the Kamchtka Peninsula in Russia. And if anyone loved, respected, and knew bears intimately, it was Hoshino. Yet his tragic death showed bears will at times kill indiscriminately. Hopefully Chris Morgan will be thorough enough in his talk this Friday to include the warning that pepper spray may not be enough to stop a charging grizzly.

Bruce Deile

[Bruce Deile]

Posting this in Oscada forum since another of my posts for some reason shows up here even though I'm in Bellingham.

[Bruce Deile]

To the Editor:(revised)

Re:'Former Professor Working to Preserve Local Bear Population'(5/5/09): When asked "How do you keep yourself safe while working around bears?", Chris Morgan responded that he knows bear behavior intimately and is respectful. "I don't approach them; I allow them to make the moves." Morgan also mentioned bear proof containers and pepper spray for bear safety.

It would be helpful if those doing good work for bear preservation admitted that pepper spray may not be enough to stop a charging grizzly. When Anchorage, Alaska had numerous bear attacks last year, local government wildlife officials responded with firearms, not just pepper spray. Similarly, as Glacier National Park has the most bear attacks in the contiguous U.S., GNP rangers responded with firearms. Yet since firearms are prohibited in Glacier National Park, the general public is advised to use pepper spray.

This double standard was a big reason why George Bush enacted federal law allowing firearms in national parks before he left office. After Obama was elected, that was immediately ruled unconstitutional purportedly because environmental concerns were not given proper scrutiny. Practically speaking, this means the issue most likely will be shelved indefinitely as people continue to be mauled in Glacier National Park.

As difficult as it is to argue for firearms given the horrific trauma caused by gun violence, allowing firearms in national parks, specifically in this instance for bear defense, was a step in the right direction. Remember world famous bear photographer Michio Hoshino. A grizzly killed and ate him in his tent on the Kamchtka Peninsula in Russia. And like Chris Morgan, Hoshino loved, respected, and knew bears intimately. Yet his tragic death showed bears will at times kill indiscriminately. Hopefully Chris Morgan will include in his talk this Friday the warning that pepper spray may not be enough to stop a charging grizzly.

Bruce Deile

[Bruce Deile]

To the Editor: 5/9/09

The title of my letter, "Firearms Enhance Safety" (Western Front; 5/8/09), is misleading in that it implies support of firearms in general. However, my letter only supported firearms specifically for bear attacks. People are suffering far too much from the glorification and prevalence of guns in this culture (see 1970's YouTube video by Rita Pavone "My Name is Potato"). I think we'd be much better off like Canada and Europe, only they should allow firearms in Banff National Park, etc.

Btw, my letter was incorrectly revised by your editors. The abbreviation for Alaska is AK (not "Ala."). Also, a sentence should be: "Similarly, as Glacier National Park has the most bear attacks in the contiguous U.S., rangers respond with firearms", since it is ongoing. Your revision showed that Glacier has "had" the most bear attacks, and as it followed the reference to Anchorage's numerous attacks last year, it read as though I were referring only to attacks last year in Glacier. But my letter was referring to bear attacks in Glacier over the past few decades. A pattern has been established, and education involves not only taking precautionary measures to avoid an attack, but also, contrary to popular propaganda, that pepper spray may not be enough and firearms should be considered as the best defense (except in GNP, etc., where unfortunately firearms are presently illegal). Finally, was it relevant to point out I am homeless? The Western Front didn't do so when publishing a letter of mine last year.

Bruce Deile

[Bruce Deile]

Granted, my original sentence was partially incorrect:

"Similarly, as Glacier National Park has the most bear attacks in the contiguous U.S., GNP rangers responded with firearms."

Responded should have been respond.

[Downtowner]

Well Bruce,

In my vast experience on bears working for the USFWS. I have spent the last 20 years investigating bear attacks in the United States.

I have found and written many papers on the subject and in my expert opinion:

The best way to stop a charging bear it take away her credit cards!

[Bruce Deile]

That's funny, Downtowner. Especially since Obama did eventually pass the bill allowing firearms in N.P.'s (since it was attached to credit card reform).

[Bruce Deile]

Here's our 1996 bear attack story...my first name is Chris; middle name Bruce...

Title: A CAN OF SPRAY, A LOT OF LUCK
Author: Craig Medred Daily News Outdoors Editor Staff
Date: September 29, 1996
Section: Outdoors
Page: O1
Moving quickly along the trail through the fast-darkening forest,
Chris Deile heard a deep woof that made his blood run cold.Less than
an hour earlier, he and fishing buddy Keith Benner of Anchorage had
watched two brown bears grab a salmon from the Kenai River and depart
along this trail.
Nervous about that, Deile and Benner had decided to delay their
planned return to their car parked along a nearby road and find a new
route back.
Some thrashing around in the thick spruce forest in the dusk,
however, soon convinced them the four-wheeler trail remained the best
choice. They started down it sensing some risk; Benner told Deile to
take the can of bear spray out of its holster, just in case.
When they shouted at the bears earlier, the animals fled. Similar
behavior was to be expected along a trail regularly traveled by
humans.
As the men started up the trail now, Benner kept shouting ”Hey
bear! Hey bear!” to warn the animals people were in the area. The
anglers knew, he said, how unwise it is to surprise a bear.
”It didn’t occur to us that we were in any particular danger,”
Benner said.”We yelled at them and scared them away (before). I
think they were pretty big grizzlies.”
Before leaving the river, Benner, a man more than 6 feet tall, had
gone and found the bears’ tracks and put his hand in one. It was a
couple of inches larger than his hand all around.
That is probably the track of a young adult bear. Because there
were two bears of about the same size hanging around together,
wildlife biologists say these animals were probably 2- or 3-year-old
siblings on their first summer alone after being driven off by their
mother.
Those are among the most unpredictable bears an angler or hiker can
expect to meet, and Deile and Benner now were heading toward them on
the trail in the evening.
”Toward dark around 9 p.m.(on Sept. 15), we decided to hike
out,” Benner said.”We didn’t want to go where the bears had gone,
but we couldn’t find a (different) trail. So we went back to where we
had originally come down.
”I told Chris we’re going to go right through where the bears went
so maybe he should get the pepper spray out. I was yelling,‘Hey
bear!’ every 30 seconds or so just to keep them scared away.”
Both Benner and Deile figured that would be enough. In his 18 years
in Alaska, the 32-year-old Deile had learned that making noise was a
sure way to keep bears away, and the few animals he’d seen seemed to
understand that rule: They would flee when spotted.
These brown bears, unfortunately, behaved differently.
Deile and Benner, with Deile in the lead, were not far down the
trail when they discovered that at least one of these two bears was
still hanging around.
”We heard two loud snorts,” Deile said, though Benner remembers only one.
”We both just stopped,” Benner said.”I guess Chris saw (the
bear) a second before it charged. It charged right for Chris.”
His attention drawn to the sound of the snort, Deile said he looked
ahead to see the bear standing 10 to 15 feet away and looking back.
”I put my arms up in the air and started screaming,” he said. He
thinks he might have run toward the bear to try to scare it off. He
admits he doesn’t remember what happened too clearly.
It all comes back, he said, in bits and pieces,”though certain
things really stand out.
”He knocked me down. His paw hit me in the chest, right in the
lower chest. It didn’t break the skin. It didn’t rip my clothes,
which I can’t understand.”
The next thing Deile remembers is staring into the bear’s muzzle.
”His teeth were just like when they’re stuffed,” he said,”nice
and white and in right in my face.”
(con't)

[Bruce Deile]

Google search for our 1996 bear attack story....'A Can of Spray, A Lot of Luck; Craig Medred; Anchorage Daily News; 9/29/96.

[The Guy Who Moved Away]

Gay

[Bruce Deile]

Freddie Hubbard 'Straight Life' (YouTube)

[Bruce Deile]

Forgot to mention...in the ADN story (above), I wasn't studying to be a missionary as reported. I did attend ABI that winter/spring though. Wouldn't recommend it. Also, outdoors writer Craig Medred kind of made it sound like I screamed at the bear and provoked it into charging. But I didn't scream until after it began charging. Felt like an out of body experience listening to myself scream (twice) as the near charged. One other correction is that the bear when I first saw it standing there ws not on two feet standing upright, but was on all fours looking straight at us. And it wasn't a "snort". It was a very loud growl. In the quiet of the woods, it seemed very loud.