A woman from central Alberta is heartbroken and angry after a grizzly cub she attempted to save was euthanized by Alberta Environment and Parks.
Brandy Gienger said she was trying to do the right thing after discovering the cub under a bridge outside Grande Cache on May 3.
She contacted Fish and Wildlife officers who told her the cub could have been stashed there by a mother grizzly bear while hunting. Gienger waited five days – regularly checking to make sure the cub was still there – before deciding to take it in Tuesday evening.
READ MORE: Sanctuary could send bear cubs back to Alberta by summer
“I’m a born and raised rancher. We’ve raised and looked after all our own livestock ranging from pigs, llamas, horses. You name it, we’ve done it,” Gienger said.
Gienger also helps run the Grande Cache Animal Society, which looks after abandoned dogs and cats and volunteers regularly at the Bear Creek Animal Clinic in Grande Prairie.
Determined to give the cub its best shot at survival, Gienger called multiple wildlife rehabilitation centres with experience in dealing with bears.
“We did as we were guided to by giving him some goat’s milk to see if he would eat it and he did. He was very, very hungry,” she said. “He was bright-eyed and he looked to be emaciated but he definitely had some power left in him. He wanted to live.”
Gienger found a wildlife rescue willing to take the cub into its care, but only with the cooperation of conservation officers. As she was preparing to bring the cub to the rescue, she received a call from an officer in Grande Prairie.
“I had to meet the conservation officer at 1 p.m. on Thursday to relinquish the cub to him,” Gienger recalled, breaking into tears.
“I was very reluctant as I had done enough research and talked to enough specialists Wednesday and knew that the cub was not safe from them.”
Since 2010, it has been illegal to rescue and rehabilitate orphaned cubs in Alberta. If Fish and Wildlife deem the bear in question unsafe to relocate or retain, they are often euthanized rather than moved to a wildlife rehabilitation facility.
Read the Alberta Government’s Grizzly Bear Reponse Guide here.
Friday morning, Gienger learned that the cub she had nicknamed ‘Groot’ was euthanized.
In a statement to Global News, Alberta justice director Dan Laville wrote in part:
“While Alberta Environment and Parks tried to determine if there was a facility that would accept a grizzly bear under permanent care, such as a zoo, unfortunately, no permanent placement for the bear was immediately available. The bear was emaciated, dehydrated, lethargic and near death, and specialists did not believe it would survive. To limit the bear’s suffering, the bear was euthanized in accordance with the Canadian Council of Animal Care guidelines. This was a very sad situation, but unfortunately, officials felt the most humane thing to do was to limit the animal’s suffering. The decision to humanely euthanize this grizzly bear cub was not made lightly.”
Gienger disputes that the grizzly cub was beyond saving, especially since a rehabilitation facility was ready and willing to take it in that same day. She said an official with Alberta Environment told her a specialist had been consulted over the phone.
“How is a specialist supposed to know this without even seeing the bear? Without even taking it under veterinarian care or looking at him? There’s no way to tell that bear did not have a chance over the phone,” she said.
In April, the Alberta government introduced new policy that would lift the rehabilitation ban, but only for black bear cubs.
READ MORE: Alberta gives orphaned black bear cub rehabilitation policy the green light
This update to the 8-year-old ban came after public outcry over a number of orphaned bears found in the province, including three cubs found in a public bathroom in Banff National Park and Russel the bear, found injured in a field near Calgary.
READ MORE: Danielle Smith: Reversal on orphaned bear rehabilitation a good start
Conservation biologist Lisa Dahlseide has been lobbying the provincial government to get rid of the rehabilitation ban for years, and said this latest incident was surprising.
“Grizzly bears are a threatened species. Every individual matters as far as genetic diversity goes, so preserving each of those individuals is so critical that it’s just unacceptable to kill these orphans.”
Gienger wasn’t aware of the province’s rehabilitation ban until this week, but now calls the policy “ridiculous and archaic.”
“I wouldn’t do it again. I would take him to the rescue. I would not hand him over,” she said. “I knew handing him over was signing his death warrant.”
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