Don't See That Everyday

Even though I've lived near the woods for most of my adult life and have seen random animals run through by backyard plenty of times I still get strangely excited when an animal shows up. I'm not even talking anything particularly exotic, either - I find the fact a regular deer is in my backyard fascinating and just the other day when I saw a hawk sitting on a branch in my yard I felt a sense of obligation to watch it until it flew away. That is why I totally understand the nervous excitement which set in last weekend when a black bear was wandering near the Mass Pike in Newton. It found its way up a tree and, fearing the bear would be a distraction to passing motorists or potentially fall and land on a car, police tried to apprehend it by hitting it with a couple of tranquilizer darts. Unfortunately that didn't work as the bear got groggy but nothing else. Sadly, police were then forced to kill the bear. Now in the last week the Newton police have taken some heat for that decision, mostly because two tranquilizer darts don't seem like much of an effort. They said it was all they had at the time (which is understandable because that should be enough to take down pretty much any animal you would normally find in that part of Massachusetts), but it is not like Newton is in the middle of nowhere. They could have just have easily called Watertown police (they clearly know how to handle a crisis) or Waltham cops to borrow their supply of tranquilizers because it is not like those guys need to hoard their tranquilizers to fight off their bear problem. In fact I would guess the reason the tranquilizers were so ineffective is that they had been sitting on the shelf for years and had passed their expiration date.

Anyway, it is because Newton Police were so quick to kill this animal that I couldn't help but wonder if they wanted it dead. I just find it a little funny because this thing happens all the time. I bet if you went back and looked at the success of wild animals in neighborhoods which are captured versus the ones which are just killed the number which are killed would be much higher. I remember a few years ago there was a moose which got loose on the south shore. This thing went on a wild adventure and was seen all over the state before it was finally captured weeks later. What happened next? The moose died as they were trying to transport it to a location to release it. You can't tell me the police didn't think it would just be easier to get rid of this animal which had been making them look bad for the better part of a month? Besides, animals have this very annoying habit to find their way back to places after you release them, no matter how far out take them first. Better to just kill it now rather than deal with it again in 4 months. Lastly, I would imagine there is a lot less paperwork when at the end of the day you simply turn the bear over to a local hunting group and let them deal with cutting it up. It is just too bad because who knows the next time a bear will find its way that far into the city. Now I am just left to wonder who is going to teach the children of Newton that only they can prevent forest fires?

[Sidebar: Can we just appreciate the blatant racism of this song? Seriously, I have more Native American blood in me than that guy. You could get away with almost anything in America in the 1950s.]