ROANOKE, Va. – A happy story turned sad on Tuesday when we learned the bear that was stuck in a Downtown Roanoke tree had been euthanized.
Wildlife Resources Biologist Nelson Lafon said that the bear was about half the size of a healthy bear, and believed to be food conditioned which means that the bear was likely sighted in populated areas before and used to getting food from human sources like trash.
[Bear cub euthanized after being rescued from tree in Roanoke’s Market Square]
“This is not what anybody that’s a wildlife biologist signs on to do,” Lafon said. “This is our least favorite part of our job. We all like animals, most of us are pet owners, so there’s a lot of focus on this individual animal. We have to focus on the bigger picture. It’s not just this animal, but also how we treat animals as a population.”
Lafon said the bear was not a candidate to be released back into the wild or transported to a rehabilitation facility.
He said a zoo wasn’t an option either, he said sending one there requires lots of planning, and this decision had to be made quickly.
“Options are very limited,” Lafon said. “In this case honestly this would not have been a good candidate for zoos to take, zoos have high standards.”
Lafon said in this case they are not searching for a mama bear because this bear was a yearling, old enough to be on its own.