The B & E Bears
By Monrovia Weekly
Published: Thursday, August 27th, 2009
Last week Monrovia Police Department issued one of their phone notifications to people living in the Wildland-Urban Interface areas of the city. The city notified residents that there were “two or three rather troublesome bears” in these areas. While bears are regular visitors in these areas, these bears were actually breaking and entering into homes.
These felonious bears have not yet acted aggressively toward people, but there is always that possibility if the bears are in your home according to the police. Residents are advised to keep windows and doors closed and secured, especially when they are not home.
From personal experience, I can tell you this is very good advice. During Gray Davis’ administration he was encouraging people to leave off their air conditioners and use cross ventilation to cool their homes in order to save energy. I did so and came home one day to find a 350 pound black bear in my kitchen. She had torn open a 1 Lb. bag of coffee, a sack of noodles and mixed them with some of the dog’s food (fortunately the dog was at the groomers that day). I yelled a few obscenities at the bear and then hightailed it out of the house. The bear followed and returned to the wilderness behind my house – I think it was the obscenities, but I recommend that you avoid the situation. After that I felt I had done my bit toward energy conservation and locked up the house tighter than a drum.
However, the bear came back that evening and again tried to pry open the back screen door. This time the door itself was closed, but wishing to deter her from returning, my husband opened the door a bit and blasted the bear with a bear repellant pepper spray. She was not too bright because after the first blast in the face, she turned back toward the door and opened her mouth. This time the rest of the can of spray was emptied into her face and mouth. She sort of half stumbled down the stairs. The next day a neighbor reported that she had seen what looked like a drunk bear reeling down my driveway and up my next door neighbor’s. When I contacted him and told him about the bear, he told me that explained why a bear was dunking his head into his pool.
There are ways to avoid bears breaking into your house and/or frequenting your yard. Do not leave pet food outside, pick up fallen fruit, and secure your trash cans. There are bear proof trash containers available through the city. Personally I freeze my interesting smelling garbage and put it out frozen the morning of trash collection. Do label the garbage; my husband once inadvertently defrosted chicken bones and salmon skins in the microwave. He ate out.
Never leave food outside even if it inside a car as bears can pry open doors and windows. It is also unwise to have food outside even if it is in a secure freezer or refrigerator. When bears get hungry they get creative. Also be sure that areas such as the spaces under decks or the crawl space under the house. These can attract bears looking for a place for a den. We had a bear break through the protection and start to move into our very spacious crawl space. The police were called and pepper sprayed the bear to force it out. Unfortunately our house was built in 1920 and leaks like a sieve from below. We had to lock ourselves in the kitchen for several hours until the spray cleared out.
For your personal safety, be aware of your surroundings when leaving your home or returning to it. We recently returned from a weekend away to find a bear in the upper meadow and decided to wait before unloading the luggage from the car.
Never, ever intentionally feed any wild animals. This attracts them and encourages them to come to your neighborhood and house. You don’t want to make them feel too much at home. It is also a violation of the Monrovia Municipal Code to feed “nondomesticated mammalian life, including, but not limited to bears, deer, mountain lions, coyotes, raccoons, opossums, mice, rats, skunks, squirrels or feral cats.”
Call the police to notify them when you feel endangered by any wildlife, report any damage by wild animals, report any “problematic wildlife behavior”, or to get more information about wildlife. If you are in danger call 911. If you only have questions or wish to report damage already done, please call the Monrovia Police Business number (626) 256-8000.
And the bear repellant, it’s available at sporting goods stores. We keep a couple cans around, one by each door.
By Susan Motander
3 Responses for “The B & E Bears”
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Thanks Susan – for publishing this article! I understand that Duarte Mesa area is having alot of proplems with the bears . Your article really puts a humorous touch on something that most people find frightening. Your advice and tips are most helpful. Please – lets keep reminding residents there are things they can do to reduce the bears from frequenting their areas and reduce possible situations that may be harmful to both parties.
Thanks again,
Nina
Hi Susan,
Thanks for your article, we need more public awareness regarding the bears.
I live in Arcadia. Recently, the Arcadia Police shot and killed two black bears that were going through trash cans and eating fruit off trees. I want to prevent this from happening again. I’m going to start a petition for Arcadia to provide bear proof trash cans for residents living in the foothill areas. I was wondering if Monrovia has required bear proof trash cans for it’s residents? If so, have they made an impact in your opinion? Thanks, Karen
As a Duartemesa resident Iam looking forward to our City Council adding another area in Duarte requiring trash out at curb only the day of pickup. Our bear is very intelligent and sets his cell phone to remind it’s buffet time. WE NEED DOUBLE LOCK TRASH CONTAINERS made of kryptinite!!