KUSA - In case people needed a reminder on how not to interact with wild animals, the Aspen Police Department issued a detailed press release reminding people not to use a bear sighting as a selfie-op.
Seriously.
If you're wondering why a police department has to take the time to write these words that should honestly be common sense, read on.
On Wednesday, Aspen officers spent a bulk of their day monitoring a mom and two bear cubs who had taken up residence in a tree on the Hyman Avenue Mall.
That night, the situation escalated. The mom and cubs finally decided to come down from the tree and were greeted by a "fairly large crowd of photo-takers and those that insisted on trying to get close enough to take selfies,” Sgt. Rob Fabrocini with Aspen PD said.
Fabrocini recalls, among other things, witnessing a woman walk up to the bears trying to take a selfie, while carrying her child.
You read that right. A mom with her child approached three wild animals.
"We were about 30 feet away and we were trying to do the best we can to keep people away, but it's a large area and people get by us. And you know, every couple minutes I'd turn around and like I said there was a woman holding a child within five feet of the bear trying to take a selfie with her back to the bear - which was very aggravating to see that." said Sgt. Fabrocini.
As if this couldn't get worse, it does.
"At one point they made a run for it, the bears did, and they got away, but people followed them and the mom got separated from the cubs," the sergeant said. "She returned to the mall clearly agitated and crying out looking for her cubs and people were still approaching her, getting within five or six feet of her."
Officers were doing everything they could to encourage people to disperse, as they feared the bear could easily turn and attack one of the onlookers.
"I just don't think they are thinking about the situation they are putting the bear in, but themselves in. It was one of those situations where we were really concerned that someone would get mauled," said Sgt. Fabrocini.
Aspen police are using this incident as a teaching moment to remind people that bears in town will act the same as bears in the wild.
"Just because there is caution tape up and an officer in the area, this in no way guarantees your safety," the release read.
And it appears people may have listened to the stern warning. The mama bear and her cubs were back out on the Hyman Avenue Mall Thursday, and hanging out in that same tree they climbed up on Wednesday.
This time though, Aspen Police closed down part of the mall while Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) tranquilized and removed the bears.
Officials didn't want a repeat of Wednesday night. Fortunately, there were no issues on Thursday and the bears are now being relocated by CPW.
On Sunday, another bear and cubs were spotted in a tree in Aspen as people watched nearby. 9NEWS was sent video of the encounter (no selfies!) and an expert we showed it to called the interaction "unhealthy."
"Hopefully, over time it starts to get into peoples' minds that human beings aren't the best thing for these animals," said Kent Drotar with the Wild Animal Sanctuary in Keensburg.
Reminder: It's illegal to harass any wildlife, not just bears. Harass means to unlawfully endanger, worry, impede, annoy, pursue, disturb, molest, rally, concentrate, harry, chase, drive, herd, or torment wildlife (C.R.S. 33-6-128). Any person who violates this law is guilty of a misdemeanor, punishable by a fine of $100 and an assessment of 10 license suspension points.
Long story short, knock it off with the bear selfies and leave the animals alone. They don't care about your edgy social media presence and while a selfie with a bear may seem cool, it won't get that many "likes" if you're dead and can't post it.
It's nothing to worry about. Those people just had their picnic baskets stolen and they were trying to take pictures of the culprit. Isn't that right BooBoo?
Forget the Bears, What about the people. Who cares about the Bear and it's feelings. Seriously, whether it's bears, or sharks, or a number of others, sometimes I think back.
2 or 3 generations ago, People only encountered these things when We (people) were hunting them (the animals) trying to kill them and put a big rug on the floor or a head on the wall.
Now back then, the Bears would run for cover, and nobody would have a chance to take a selfie, and we were all better off.
So, I blame the tree hugging liberals, at least a little bit. All these recycling crowd too. Bring back the old days, hunt these things into oblivion, and they won't be coming into the suburbs.
Where was this, California?, (oh) Aspen; probably a bunch of vegitarians.
Bears belong in Zoos! And Wherever people ain't found them to shoot them yet! (And Wrastling rings in the 1970's)
I don't know if you could be any more wrong if you tried.
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2 or 3 generations ago, People only encountered these things when We (people) were hunting them (the animals) trying to kill them and put a big rug on the floor or a head on the wall.
2 or 3 generations ago, people were hand feeding bears in parks. It's taken quite a bit of work to educate the public and enforce the non feeding of wildlife.
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Now back then, the Bears would run for cover, and nobody would have a chance to take a selfie, and we were all better off.
Now back then, when bears saw people, they would run toward them...and people took pics and home movies.
And into the forest I go, to lose my mind and find my soul. - John Muir
About 15 years ago I was sitting in my backyard by our pool.
All of a sudden ~ 5-6 people start walking by my pool; in my backyard which was fairly private and probably 100 yards+ from the street.
I’m like “UMM...CAN I HELP YOU?”
They point to my yard and say “Bear”.
A black bear probably in the neighborhood of 300 lbs was lumbering across the lawn in my backyard. He had probably passed within 20 yards of where I was sitting without me noticing.
My back property-line was a stream with woods on the other side.
The bear crossed the stream and into the woods.
Unfortunately for the bear, it was at least 5 miles and there were a couple busy residential main roads he would have had to cross to get to an area big enough for a bear to live.
He caused a stir, they called the cops and naturally they shot the bear.
this is why we are failing as a nation's ... we don't let the idiots thin themselves out. Just let them die ... they earned it so let them have their reward ... that whole reap what you sow thing ... stupidity should reap death not more coddling.
You can't fix stupid but you can destroy ignorance. When you destroy ignorance you remove the justifications for evil. If you want to destroy evil then educate our people. Hate is a tool of the stupid to deal with what they can't understand.
You're right. Baby boomers have shown time and time again that they cannot take a joke. Maybe I should've thrown in a reference to domestic violence. I know some Cons on this forum find that stuff hysterical.
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