B.C.’s most experienced rehabilitation specialist for black bears said Wednesday it is crazy for the Ministry of Environment to assert that two eight-week-old cubs on Vancouver Island needed to be killed because they’d become habituated to human food.

“It’s just ridiculous,” said Angelika Langen, co-founder of Northern Lights Wildlife Society in Smithers. “There is absolutely no scientific proof that cubs that follow their mothers for (human) food at this age have learned anything.

“When they’re little like this they’re just following mom; they’re not learning yet. When they’re more than one year old it’s a totally different story.”

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Langen said of the more than 300 black bears her facility has released in the past 25 years, not one has run into trouble by rummaging for human garbage. Bears receive ear tags and microchips to identify them after release.

“If one of our bears showed up and caused trouble, we’d be notified but we’ve never had a garbage bear. Not one,” she said. “And we’d hear about it.”

There’s been an outpouring of support for conservation officer Bryce Casavant, who was suspended without pay after sparing the lives of two black bear cubs near Port Hardy on Sunday.

The B.C. government has since revised those conditions to a suspension with pay pending an investigation into the incident.

The cubs’ mother was put down after repeatedly raiding a mobile home’s freezer of meat and fish. Casavant refused to kill her cubs, choosing instead to tranquilize them and take them to a veterinary hospital. The brother and sister are now at the North Island Wildlife Recovery Centre.

Chris Doyle, acting deputy chief of the Conservation Officer Service, told a news conference in Victoria that due to the “number and nature” of wildlife complaints, it can be necessary to kill problem animals in the interest of public safety. Smaller cubs that are “suitable candidates” may be taken to rehabilitation facilities.

He said the early information in the Casavant case is that the bears “had some level of habituation and food conditioning.”

“We’re investigating the circumstances of that situation and all the actions that took place,” he concluded.

As of Wednesday afternoon, more than 55,000 people had signed an online petition asking for the officer’s reinstatement.

Ricky Gervais, the British actor, comedian and animal rights advocate with nine million Twitter followers, has urged the government to “reinstate this honourable man.”

Soon-to-be published research by John Beecham, a consultant and retired bear biologist with the Idaho Department of Fish and Game, found no evidence that captive-reared black bears from mothers with a known history of conflict behaviour were more prone to become involved in conflict than bears from mothers with no known history of conflict.

His study also found that only about six per cent of captive-reared black bears in seven jurisdictions in the U.S. and Ontario became involved in conflict situations. Hunting regulations are one of the main factors in determining cub survival. First-year survival rates post-release ranged from 50 to 90 per cent.