When a mother bear with a cub in tow walked through the automatic doors of the Pharmasave store in Hope, B.C., on Sunday afternoon, staff and customers were shocked. “I heard my coworker Bree yell, ‘Bear!’ And if anyone knows me, they know that’s my nickname, but no one at work knows that. So I realized there was actually a bear in the store,” said clerk Kara Kelso. She hustled customers out of the store and began recording on her cell phone. “When it first entered, it went directly into cosmetics, and it headed right to our perfume counter,” said Kelso. “The cub stayed pretty in tow. The mom felt really comfortable just going along to get what she needed. And the cub just kind of played along its way. Eventually, they made their way back to the pharmacy.” “Absolutely surreal,” said pharmacy assistant Erin Regan. “It’s amazing that they just walked in. They were quite calm. I was very surprised that they weren’t wanting to get out right away or anything like that. They just strolled like they were shopping, and they had done it a billion times.” Kelso stayed behind the counter and called 911 for advice. “Eventually the mama bear kind of walked by the back of the till and had one little sniff at me, and then she just left, and her little cub came running behind her, and they took a right and headed straight down toward the Fraser River,” Kelso said. Pharmasave staff had hoped the pair returned safely to the woods, but on Monday, the B.C. Conservation Officer Service said after the mother and cub were tranquillized, it was determined she was too habituated to people and was put down. Her cub was released alone into a nearby wilderness area. In a statement, the B.C. Conservation Service said: “Bears that learn to associate people with food, frequent populated areas and enter homes or stores are not candidates for relocation or rehabilitation, due to the risk to public safety.” Holly Reisner with the North Shore Black Bear Network argued the video taken inside the store showed the mother bear was not interested in people, only food. “It was this automated door that opened when the bear went past, and she is going to follow their nose inside, just like they would in our homes,” Reisner said. Reisner is concerned the cub, likely born in January or February and should have stayed with its mother until next summer, won’t make it. “Relocating a little bear like that into the wilderness, it’s doubtful whether that bear will survive. They don’t have a lot of extra body fat. So now that little cub is completely on its own as far as figuring out how to find food,” Reisner said, adding, “How will that bear figure out how to den this winter on their own without the guidance of their mother that they should have?” She said she wishes the cub had been placed with a facility like Critter Care through the winter. “They are ready to save bears, and that’s what they want to be doing. So it’s up to conservation to make that decision,” said Reisner. “They have the ability to issue a permit to allow Critter Care to capture and rehabilitate that cub. But it’s their decision to make.” CTV News requested an interview with the B.C. Conservative Service, but no one was made available by deadline.
