The owner of a farm near Dunster was within his right to shoot four grizzly bears who had ventured onto his property, a provincial court judge found during a hearing earlier this month.
Where Arlan Harry Baer went wrong was failing to report the shooting. For that he was fined $500 and ordered to donate a further $1,500 to the Habitat Conservation Trust.
Baer shot the three when they came within about 75 feet of his home, the court heard. One was a mature sow and the three others were her two-year-old cubs. They were about to be abandoned by the mother so she could produce another litter the following spring.
"We were advised weeks before this by others in the community to take them out because they are going to be kicked out, they're going to be abandoned, and they are going to cause a lot of grief," Baer told the court during the hearing December 9 in Valemount.
Judge Shannon Keyes agreed: "If that is the case, then it seems to me, the mother having taught those three young bears to attend at Mr. Baer's farm, they did pose a danger to him - to Mr. Baer and his family."
Charges of hunting without a licence, hunting out of season, unlawful possession of dead wildlife, failure to state date or location of killed wildlife and resisting or obstructing a conservation officer were subsequently stayed, while the charge of failing to report was upheld.
The initial complaint was made in Sept. 2014 and charges were laid in in June.
A former principal of McBride Christian Day School, Baer runs a family farm that has both Holstein dairy and beef cows. Under the Wildlife Act, there are provisions where a rancher can protect his livestock.
