Canada: Man Killed by Bear in British Columbia

Picture from From facebook.com/wardho Ward and Jami

A young Canadian was killed in what appears to be a predatory black bear attack in British Columbia, near Mckenzie, Canada. From vancouverson.com:

I did not find any mention of hunting or shooting from the couples facebook pages, so it seems likely that they did not have any firearms with them when the attack occurred. A couple of days before the attack, the young woman posted a video on facebook showing a solitary wolf visiting their campsite.

The firepit that the wolf is sniffing around may be where Ward O'connor fell asleep. The video was taken from the couple's motorhome. A visitor on facebook describes it as a van, so it is probably one of the smaller models. A commenter on the site sent an eerily prescient message. From facebook/jamiwallace:

Gabrielle Louisa Parker On my, what a scary and exciting experience. you guys have any weapons for protection?

The morning after the attack, Ward's fiancée, Jami Wallace, found evidence of an attack. She followed a blood trail from the campsite, found the body, then returned to get help. Ward's father rushed to the campsite, but could not get near the body because the bear was guarding its kill. From cbc.ca:

Danny O'Connor rushed to the campground and started searching through the bush for his son.

"I wanted to get out there and see if I could save him," he said.

"When I got there the bear was there," standing over his son's body, he said. "I couldn't go closer."

It takes a brave man to rush to the scene of a bear attack, unarmed. With Canadian gun laws, it is likely that he was unable to borrow a gun from a neighbor. We can never know if a firearm could have been used to save Ward. The attack may have been so sudden as to prevent any resistance. Ms. Wallace has not mentioned that she heard any commotion in the night.

If Ward had carried a handgun, virtually impossible under Canadian law, he might have been able to save himself, as happened with an Arizona camper in 2002. From thefiringline.com:

"SENECA LAKE, Ariz. — A man out camping with his brother woke up with one heck of a headache, only to discover that a bear was biting him in the head.

Thanks to his quick reactions — and to the handgun he was carrying — Rodney Black, 51, will be OK

Black and his brother were sleeping at their campsite at Seneca Lake, Ariz., when Black said he felt an intense pain in his head. He said the next thing he knew, he was on the ground, blood was gushing everywhere and he couldn't see a thing.

His said his brother screamed out "Bear!” and he managed to get out his handgun and shoot the animal dead.

"I don't know where I hit him," Black told the Arizona Republic. "He went down on the first shot and I emptied my revolver into him. I knew that I needed to make that first shot, or I was in more trouble.

After officers arrived, they shot a lone wolf before they discovered the black bear. It is likely that the wolf was the one in the video. They shot the 300 pound bear a little later. Subsequent investigation showed that the attacking animal was a bear.

Bears are hungry this time of year; and a sleeping human smells a lot like an easy meal.

©2015 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice is included.
Link to Gun Watch

IF he had a handgun, he might have survived, but not likely. It sounds like it was the middle of the night and he was asleep. His fiancée only discovered him missing in the AM, so she didn’t hear a struggle. In bear country, he should have been sleeping inside.

Any time I go into the mountains, I carry ‘bear bangers’ and also bear spray as a last resort. Even the TransAlta Hydro boys, who maintain all the isolated hydro facilities in ‘K-Country’, are not allowed to carry guns. They depend on ‘bear bangers’. So far, no one has been attacked by a bear. The ‘bangers’ seem to do the trick!

No one has been attacked BECAUSE they work. Over the years I worked for TA, Several employees have had to use them over the last few years, all successfully. Since there is no cellphone coverage in much of the mountains, and radio reception is poor, and there are not enough satellite phones to go around, employees can be on their own.

Basically, a 'banger' is similar to a shotgun shell, but has no shot, only a small plastic cap. You place it on a 'pen' launcher, aim it up directly over your head, and pull the trigger. It fires into the air making a loud 'bang', like a shotgun blast, which scares the bear away.

The downside is, in a panic, if someone aims it towards the bear and fires, and it overshoots the bear, you have a scared, angry bear running away from the sound TOWARDS you!

Here is a link to a "Bear Banger" from Mountain Equipment Company in Calgary.

I ran into a black bear hiking a few weeks ago in NY; it was absolutely terrifying. It moved slowly closer when I turned to pick up a club, then moved off when I moved forward a little bit yelling (with a club in one hand, spray in the other, and a turd at my sphincter about to let loose). Last fall a foreign college student had been killed nearby (on the NJ side of the border), though I think they were taking selfies with the bear then scattered when it got closer. In any case, I wasn’t about to go out like that (and was probably lucky). The best way to describe the feeling is that I could literally “hear” my heart pounding; in the end the scariest thing was how silent the bear was (both watching me approach before I was aware of it and then when it turned and loped away). If I was hiking later in the year when more brush was grown in, I would have walked right into it without ever seeing it (and would have still had my map in one hand and GPS in the other).

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