When the heat is un-BEAR-able...

Damn, you know it's hot when a family of bears takes over your pool.

This family in New Jersey was both amused and upset to see mama bear and five cubs enjoying their pool and playing with the pool toys.






Rest of the story here:

'They took my floatie!' Stunned children watch family of bears cool off in their paddling pool (and destroy all their toys)

This beats any original content that I might have had today.

Alaska after-action (with promised pics!)

OK, I'm back, am somewhat rested, and I've sorted through the latest Picasa problems which kept me from putting pics up yesterday. I have a lot of pics, so I'll do a few here and a few there for a while. To start with, welcome to Talkeetna, Alaska. Nice place when it's not overrun by hippies.
My lodging for the night.
A few stars short of four-star, but after hitting all of the local pubs, I really didn't mind this quaint room (with bathroom down the hall).
The Talkeetna airport. Here are some float planes on a lake just off the Talkeetna road. Alaska has a lot of these. I'm thinking that I need a float plane.
Look--dogs. These are the National Park Service sled dogs used at Denali National Park in the wintertime. Betcha didn't know that your tax dollars paid for dogsleds and sled dogs, didja?
Woof.
They even have puppies, and a webcam where you can watch them.

And here's the bear I met a short time later. Kinda wish those dogs were handy because my .40 wasn't up to the challenge.

But bear or no, Denali's beautiful. I was a bit bummed that I didn't see any moose though.



Thanks again to Liz for the hook-up with the dogs, the tip on the road being open, and the rice and spinach salad you made for lunch...also for the trail mix that I snacked on all the way back to Anchorage.

Because Ernest Stamm just had to feed the animals...

and because he wouldn't keep his distance, Mama Bear had to smack him on the face. Now she's dead. And Stamm is unapologetic.

SANFORD – A Longwood-area man who opened his door one day and was slapped by a bear pleaded no contest Tuesday to feeding wildlife and was fined $200 and placed on six months probation.

Ernest Stamm, 49, had been ticketed for feeding bears.

He lives in The Springs, a heavily-wooded community near Wekiva Springs State Park.

He called for help Dec. 10 and told authorities he opened his door and something swiped him across the face.

When emergency crews arrived, they found a black bear in his yard. Once the animal left, Stamm was taken to an Altamonte Springs hospital, where he was treated for cuts to his face and released.

Defense attorney David Oliver on Tuesday said Stamm required several stitches to his eye and cheek. He has recovered fully, Oliver said.

Officials with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission captured the bear the next day and euthanized it. That angered Stamm's neighbors.

The animal was a female who left behind two cubs who were old enough to survive on their own, the commission reported.

Stamm said little at Tuesday's hearing, except to answer questions from Seminole County Judge Ralph Eriksson.

"Ernest Stamm, is this what you want to do?" the judge asked.

"Yes," said Stamm, who operates an auto detailing business.

He pleaded no contest, agreed to pay a $200 fine, make a $250 contribution to a wildlife fund and serve six months of probation.

Stamm did not admit to breaking the law. His attorney said Stamm did not intend to feed bears. He and a neighbor were feeding feral cats that had been spayed and neutered, and it's that food that attracted the bear, Oliver said.

But Joy Hill, a commission spokeswoman, said neighbors told authorities they saw Stamm interact with bears.

The commission wrote Stamm a ticket a week after he was injured. Investigators had found the food that was intended for cats, as well as rotisserie chicken containers, Hill said.

It's a misdemeanor to intentionally or unintentionally feed wildlife, Hill said. That's because once a wild animal comes to expect food from humans, it loses its fear of them and can become a nuisance or threat.

"Nobody wins," she said. "If it causes problems like this, the bear dies."

First of all, even feeding stray cats is wrong. It encourages them to multiply and then they bother all of the neighbors. Trust me--I've got a neighbor who does that and Lagniappe and I are both sick of seeing those cats in OUR yard. But this jackass clearly knew the bears were about--his neighbors said they saw him messing with them before--and he still kept putting food out. Now the bear's dead and this jerkwater won't man up and admit to doing what everyone knows he was doing. And can someone explain why emergency crews had to transport him to the hospital for a scratched face? This loser actually insisted on going in an ambulance for that instead of just getting in his car or riding in someone else's? He's got to be a liberal, because he's showing absolutely no sense of personal responsibility. He's probably still got Obama stickers in his car.

He should have been fined more or given a few weeks of community service, because from this story, he clearly doesn't get it and I doubt that he's going to change his ways and stop feeding the bears or even the feral cats that no one else wants in the neighborhood. But hey--it's all about him, don't you just know?

And now for something completely different...

Sometimes I just have to take a break from posting about whacky German Shepherds, flying, guns illegal aliens or liberal political ideologies that have the potential to destroy America. This is one of those days.

This post goes out to everyone who has ever gotten bugged by squirrels getting into your bird feeder. You think you've got problems?














As the National Park Service Law Enforcement Ranger who sent me these asked:

"What in the world is that line made of?"

Ode to the Maymont bears --- killed by a stupid woman and her bratty kid

This is a story with a sad ending and one that never should have occurred.

In the Richmond, Virginia area, there is a park with animals on display. Until February 18th, Maymont park had two black bears. One was an orphan that the park had gotten as a cub, and the other was a nuisance bear that wound up there because people had fed it and taught it bad habits. The bears were in an enclosure behind a fence surrounded by a barrier wall and people could see them without getting too close.

But on the 18th, a single mom decided to take her 4 year old brat to the park, and she let him run amuck and didn't pay attention as he climbed over the barrier and approached the bears. He stuck his little hand through the fencing and got bit.

Now it wasn't much of a bite, especially as bears go. He didn't lose his hand or even any fingers. In fact the kid is just fine now. But because the park felt that they had to test the bear for rabies, and because they weren't sure which bear bit the brat, both bears were killed so that the rabies test could be performed.

Neither bear had rabies as it turned out, but both of them are still dead. And they were sentenced to death by a woman who couldn't be bothered to control her kid.

Hi. I'm dead.


Now I'm personally no stranger to animal bites. In my younger days as I traveled the country on my motorcycle one summer, I managed to get nipped by a wolf in the Souix Falls, SD zoo and also by an otter in the Vancouver, BC zoo. It was my own fault both times and I had it coming, but I didn't run crying to the zoo management and cause those beautiful creatures to be killed. I just sucked it up and went on about my business.

OK, I did have to go to the zoo infirmary in South Dakota for a band-aid because it was bleeding pretty good. And they gave me a band-aid and a free tetanus shot then they booted me out and told me not to come back, as they should have. No harm, no foul and I learned that animals in a zoo are still wild.

Now zoos these days do a much better job of posting signs to that effect practically everywhere. One would also think that this so-called "mother" would have enough sense to keep her kid from climbing over a wall and approaching these once nice bears signs or no but she didn't and two bears paid with their lives.

A note left by a mourning park visitor on the now-empty bear enclosure sums it all up. It reads: "We are so sorry you are gone -- have fun in heaven."

The papers are refusing to print the name of this woman who caused the deaths of these bears. But if and when I find it out, I'll be posting it right here.