I don’t know if Maine Inland Fisheries and Wildlife officials had any viable alternative to killing the bear that attacked a woman in her backyard (“Bear that bit woman has been euthanized,” July 4, Page B2), but when I was stationed with the U.S. Army in Alaska, we employed a different method that won praise from just about everyone.

Both black bears and the much larger brown bears would sometimes wander into our housing areas in search of food. We once caught one in someone’s kitchen eating from a large pot of mac and cheese!

We used to call Alaska Fish and Game, but they would just come out and shoot the bear. We had a company of Chinook heavy-lift helicopters on post, so we arranged to conduct a training mission for them whenever we found a bear that would not leave the area. We tranquilized the bear with a dart gun, and after he was down we wrapped him up in a sturdy cargo net.

The helicopter would then transport the bear, hanging from beneath the aircraft, 300 miles or so away, where they deposited him in an isolated region of the state. Our general said, “If we can help it, let’s not kill a bear for just being a bear.”

Dan Possumato
Brunswick

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