A small, skinny adolescent bear with a bald patch on his backside could be in for a rough summer if he doesn’t stay away from human garbage.

But the bruin that pulled a raw chicken out of an unsecured waste bin in the Chineside neighbourhood of Coquitlam Tuesday morning and came back on garbage pick up day Thursday for more can’t be blamed for feeding his appetite, says Sgt.Todd Hunter of the BC Conservation Officer Service.

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“The bear was eating a neighbour’s raw meat groceries in the back yard,” Hunter told the Tri-City News Wednesday. “We did receive a report yesterday to our call centre and we’re going to see what we can do for a response.”

Hunter said bears are emerging from their dens extremely hungry and there is not a lot for them to eat besides grass. Consequently, they’ll move to an area where garbage isn’t locked up and dig in for some high-calorie food waste.

Meanwhile, property owners who leave those carts unsecured could get a $230 fine for leaving attractants out, with fines ramping up to $575 under the Wildlife Act if they don’t follow through on an order to clean up their yard.

Cities will also levy their own fines for disobeying garbage bylaws.

“It’s imperative that people manage their food waste and manage their yards properly to not attract bears,” Hunter said.

Already this spring four bears have been destroyed in the Tri-Cities — two in Coquitlam and two in Port Coquitlam — after becoming habituated to human garbage and causing conflicts.

“The bears were showing extreme signs of habituation, opening stuff and trying to get into unnatural food sources.”

Hunter said calls to the conservation officer service are roughly on par with last year or a little higher, with the CO service receiving 150 conflict calls from Coquitlam since the beginning of April, 158 from Port Coquitlam, 43 from Port Moody, six from Anmore and seven from Belcarra.

“June it will go up even higher, definitely in June we’ll get a spike [in calls],” Hunter predicted.

To try and get a handle on the situation, the CO service will be working with municipalities to hand out fines and warnings and will be cracking down on those that haven’t complied with wildlife orders to secure attractants.

Some big offenders could even be going to court in the future pending the outcome of investigations.

“Definitely we need public support to stop leaving out their garbage. Bottom line is bears are being attracted to properties.”

In the Chineside neighbourhood the garbage had been left unsecured. The neighbour who reported this to The Tri-City News pointed out the area hadn’t had a bear issue until someone left their waste cart unsecured.

“Due to just one thoughtless human action one bear is now a potential liability to itself,” the neighbour commented in an email to The News.

Now this bear will have to be monitored because it is becoming habituated to human attractants despite efforts by the city of Coquitlam to change garbage pick up times to ensure that bear-prone areas get their green waste bin collected first.

The COs’ Hunter recommends people lock up their waste bins, clean out their barbecue grease catchers and stop using bird feed.

Other tips can be found at the BC Conservation Officer Service tab on the Government of B.C. website and at your local city hall.

