By John Cramer

Archives Reprint

   john.cramer@roanoke.com

   981-3140

    ROCKY MOUNT - A day after a bear wandered into a downtown hospital and was shot to death, wildlife officials urged people to seal their trash cans, refrain from putting out food for wildlife and take other steps to avoid attracting Virginia's growing black bear population.

    In recent years, the state has outlawed feeding bears on all public and private lands and restarted a bear hunting season in an effort to balance the needs of both people and bears.

    Although there has never been an unprovoked bear attack on a human in Virginia's recorded history, bear sightings are increasing in Franklin County and other rural areas where human populations and development are encroaching on bear habitat, state game and wildlife officials said.

    Most bears that approach people and towns have been fed by homeowners or poachers, said Jay Jeffreys , a wildlife biologist with the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries.

    The bear that wandered into the Carilion Franklin Memorial Hospital likely had been fed by humans, he said. It was believed to be the same bear reported elsewhere in town in recent days.

    "A fed bear is a dead bear," Jeffreys said. "Once you feed them, they lose all fear of man."

    Preliminary results of a rabies tests on the bear are due today , said John Walke, environmental health specialist at the Franklin County Health Department.

    Lt. Karl Martin, a state game warden, said there were no indications the bear was rabid, but that the test was done as a precaution. The bear's bodily fluids - vomit and blood - were handled as hazardous material by hospital staff.

    About 9 p.m. Tuesday as the hospital was being locked down for the night, an ambulance driver reported seeing the bear walk through the lobby's automatic doors. The bear retreated down a hall into a small office after encountering several startled people.

    An off-duty Rocky Mount police officer and hospital security officer Dan Thompson locked the bear in the office and called the game warden, animal control and law enforcement personnel. The bear, an old male weighing 345 pounds, appeared frightened and did not threaten anyone, officials said.

    "I think I startled him as much as he startled me," Thompson said.

    Martin said he considered tranquilizing the bear but decided it had to be shot to death as a safety precaution. The bear was partially hidden behind a desk, preventing a clear shot with a tranquilizer gun.

    He said sedating the bear might have endangered patients, staff, officers and curious onlookers outside because bears often become angry, disoriented and seek to escape before losing consciousness several minutes later. A Franklin County sheriff's deputy killed the animal with two shots.

    Martin, a game warden for 32 years, said some animal rights advocates have complained about his decision.

    "There were only two directions he could have taken [through the window or door] and both were bad for a bear with a dart in him in the middle of the night" in a crowded hospital and downtown, he said.

    Darrell Van Ness, the hospital's director of emergency services, and Tom Jackson, facility services director, agreed with the decision to kill the bear.

    Bear sightings in rural, suburban and urban neighborhoods are increasingly common in Southwest and central Virginia as male bears wander in search of mates during breeding season in May, June and July, Jeffreys said.

    More than 1,500 black bears were killed last year during Virginia's first bear-hunting season in three decades. Three bears were reported killed in Franklin County.

    For more information about black bears, go to the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries Web site at www.dgif.virginia.gov.Report problems with bears at (804) 367-1258.

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