Karelian Bear Dogs

Karelian Bear Dogs were bred in Russia and Finland to hunt bears. Here in North America, bear dogs are part of bear management programs aimed at rehabilitating "problem" bears. Karelian Bear Dogs can be used to teach the bears to respect and avoid human areas.

People create problem bears. If people are not careful with food and smelly garbage around their property or camp, it attracts hungry wildlife like bears. When bears learn to associate people with food, and learn that people are not scary, they become "habituated". A problem bear = "nuisance" bear = "garbage" bear = "habituated" bear.

FACT: on average, 1000 bears lose their lives in BC each year for being "problem bears".

FACT: bears are intelligent creatures, and programs of this type have been used successfully to teach bears to stay away from problem areas. A problem area is any place where bears and people may come into conflict.

The way Karelian Bear Dogs may typically be used to help bears:

• a trained team of bear dogs and a dog handler work with the Conservation Officer (CO), usually in a chase situation. The bear is chased to a safe distance away, at which point the chase is called off. This tells the bear that it is a territorial dispute and not a predatory attack. The bear learns recognize the boundary of our territory and learns to stay away.
• through educational programs like BearSmart and BearAware, a trained team of humans work with the community to teach proper disposal of garbage, fruit from fruit trees, etc... so as not to continue to attract wildlife to their property. "A fed bear is a dead bear".

The problem in British Columbia (BC) is that it is illegal to chase bears with dogs because it is considered harassment of wildlife. But - the Hunting & Trapping Regulations allow off-leash chases of bears and cougars by dogs. So... a CO is not allowed to chase a bear with a dog. Instead it is chased by a gun. Is there something wrong with this picture?

We have been proposing amendments to the BC Wildlife Act that would open the door to the use of trained Karelian Bear Dogs by a Conservation Officer. Our petition has been presented by our MLA, Norm McDonald, and now we NEED YOUR HELP to encourage the Ministry of Environment to make the proposed changes. FOLLOW THIS LINK to see how you can help!

Grizzly bears, black bears, polar bears, cougars, and ungulates can all be taught to respect boundaries - indeed, any animal that understands what "territory" is. And, an important part of any bear/wildlife management is education, such as the BearAware / BearSmart initiatives.

For more info about the Karelian Bear Dog breed, you can try the Canadian Kennel Club.

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