Miss Manners says "Make sure to use it this Thanksgiving!"
Posted on 10/31/2005 10:48:08 AM PST by seacapn
COOS BAY, Ore. — For nine days, Rocky and Jonathan Perkett heard a lone black bear cub wail from its hiding spot in a Coos County logging site.
They could drop a tree on it or rescue it. They chose the latter and for two years the bear was like family. But when the authorities got wind of it, there was trouble a-bruin.
The father and son named her Windfall and raised it for two years.
The men shared pizza and Dr Pepper with the bear and gave her free reign of their home in the woods outside Coos Bay.
The bear slept in Jonathan Perkett's bed, took showers and even had her hair blow-dried, Rocky Perkett says.
"We're not lying about it," says Rocky Perkett, 54, in his thick backwoods drawl. "We lived with her. We loved her. We treated her like a daughter."
But that kind of love is illegal in Oregon, and last week police raided their home and took Windfall.
The men face possible for holding the bear without permits and in an unlicensed facility.
The incident pits the heartstrings of some animal lovers against state statutes meant to keep wild creatures in the wild.
(Excerpt) Read more at seattletimes.nwsource.com ...
tugs at the heart strings - truth be told, we are all Bambiphiles;)
wish I hadn't read the article.....anyone who uses "unlegal" is alright!
sp
BUMP!
Eventually I just realized he was nuts.
Eventually he got himself and his innocent girlfriend eaten.
Surely someone saw this movie and can comment.
I'm no animal expert but I do know that it just takes one swipe from a bear to take your head off. Unfortunately it happened to a relative of mine after he shot an elk.
Yeah, I think that film was "Grizzly Man," about Tim Treadwell and his craziness near Katmai Park. The problem with those bears is that they are not at all domesticated. They also get really hungry right before the hibernation season, which is when Treadwall got himself muched. Sorry to hear about your relative.
This brings to mind the story about the bear "expert" who got eaten.
I mean, "when Treadwell himself munched."
"got himself munched"
Darn, maybe I need to go back to gradeschool for some grammar lessons...
I believe the proper grammatical construction is: "He got his self munched."
Slap a rubber girdle on granny and spank her sideways, but he done got his self munched.
Kinky, but I like it.
On the other hand its OK to have sex with animals in Washington State and Oregon just passed a law making public sex acts legal. I'm not sure if the law says anything about animals.
Third time is a charm. ;^)
They really should have moved to Mass., where a man can legally marry his bear.
Miss Manners says "Make sure to use it this Thanksgiving!"
I am a hunter and hiker and honestly the scariest two times of my life are when I encountered black bears in the N Ga mountains. I know, I know, that blacks are nothing like grizzlies, but I was still scared.
The first was a male that was marking a tree that we came across just as we topped a hill - he was about 30 yards from us and downhill. I stopped cold for about 10 seconds and only then did he look at me. It was all I could do to whisper to my companion to walk slowly along the path away from the bear and to try to not make much noise. I had a .357 at my hip and I pulled it as I walked away, cursing myself for having snakeshot in the first two barrels.
We walked away without incident, hearing the bear's scratching as we continued to walk. If he had suddenly stopped I would have sh!t my pants. All the time I was looking for Mama and Baby and praying I wasn't between Baby and anything. After we got out of sight over the next hill we ran for a half mile. Not sure if that was smart but that is what we did. I did not sleep that night.
The second time was worse; a black mom and her cub came up behind us on a fairly good sized trail and before we knew it (I heard the mom grunt) they were 50 yards behind us but gaining (it was a good slope up and we were loaded up with gear). We tried to outwalk them for about 10 mins (or so it seemed) but they just kept coming. I finally said that we had to get off the path and hope they went by. For some reason (divine intervention?) I shed my pack just off the side of the path but my partner kept his on. We went up into some rocks and I was trying to see if I could find a rock crevice or hole I could get in or a tree I could climb.
The bears came to my pack and sniffed it, and mom tore the side compartment of the back open where luckily I had stored all my food (as well as some, ahem, wacky tobaccy).
The bears ate all the food and all the other, um, stuff.
At this point we were wondering what would happen if the bears would go for the second bag. We decided to put the bag down and if they came we would walk away. They finished my pack, the cub batted my water bottle around for about 5 mins while mom cleaned up (she ate right through a small plastic mayo jar).
After that they simply kept walking up the hill. We waited 15 min and then got my bag and bolted back from whence we came. I was able to get some more food but I missed the other lost material the whole 5 extra days of the hike.
If anyone thinks I f@cked up somewhere let me know.
Oooookayyyyyy
That's quite a tale. I've been in close quarters with grizzlies before while hiking/hunting in Alaska, but so far, no big incidents. The bears keep their distance, and I keep mine. There are anecdotal reports of .44 cal pistol bullets deflecting right off the thick skulls of grizzly bears. Fortunately, I've never had to find out if this is true!
But I do feel sorry for the family whose bear was taken away in this case. It sounds like they lived out in the countryside, and not right in town, where this kind of thing would be more of a hazard.
Frankly I'm sure I would just blast away in panic.
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