One year later, the Bear Lady of Yachats is doing 'OK' (OR)

The Oregonian ^ | August 1, 2010 | Lori Tobias

[jazusamo]

NEWPORT – It's been one year since a Lincoln County circuit court judge booted Karen Noyes from her Yachats home for feeding black bears. Today, Noyes , 62, has a new home, a court appeal and is due to appear on Animal Planet.

All in all, said Noyes, "I'm OK."

That's not to say the past year has been an easy one.

Noyes was convicted last summer on charges of harassing wildlife for feeding black bears at her house despite repeated warnings to stop. Judge Thomas Branford sentenced her in June, ordering her to vacate her home by Aug. 31.

At the invitation of bear expert Lynn Rogers, who testified on her behalf during her trail, Noyes headed to the North America Bear Center in Ely, Minn., where she helped out as a volunteer.

But then Animal Planet came calling, looking for Noyes to do a segment of their show. Rogers warned Noyes not to do it.

"I told her, 'Don't be part of that show; they will just make a monkey out of you,'" said Rogers. "If you know beforehand that the premise of the show is to show how stupid it is to feed animals and how stupid the people are who do that ... you just want nothing to do with that."

But Noyes did want something to do with that.

"I was hoping to get my story out," she said.

That story is one of a neighborhood overrun by black bears. Of bears trying to get into houses through dog doors, of bears annihilating a flock of 60 turkeys, of at least four bears shot dead in one summer. It is also the story of Noyes' utter certainty that the bears are her friends and that she harms no one in feeding them.

Even now, Noyes refuses to believe that her years of feeding the black bears caused her coastal neighborhood problems. She blames Oregon Fish & Wildlife agents for turning the neighborhood against her with what she says were lies.

"They made the neighbors think it was my fault, but in all the western states, there was a drought and a berry freeze," says Noyes. "It's important to talk about the berry freeze and drought. Everybody had problems. It was all the western states, not just Oregon."

That's the story Noyes wanted to tell on Animal Planet.

"But they didn't ask me much about it," she said. Now she wonders if Rogers maybe was right.

"They might make me out to be a monkey. Whatever happens, happens."

Only time will tell. A spokesman for Animal Planet didn't know if or when the segment would air.

In March, Portland attorney Geordie  Duckler filed an appeal on Noyes' behalf. Noyes was originally charged with reckless endangerment and harassing wildlife, but convicted only on the harassment charges.

"She was convicted of the wrong thing," said Duckler. " If she had been convicted of reckless endangerment, it would have kind of made sense. There are bears around and the neighbors are afraid. Getting acquitted of that was remarkable."

Likewise, the conviction on the harassment charges is just wrong, said Duckler.

The statute outlining harassment of wildlife uses words such as harass, torment, vex, annoy or kill, said Duckler. But that isn't what Noyes did.

"The only evidence against Karen was that she fed them. If they had anything else, that she shoo'd them away or got a broom, that might have been sufficient to say harass, annoy, vex or torment. She was convicted of a crime in which she didn't meet the meaning of the crime. If to feed is to harass, then every bird and squirrel feeder is a criminal act."

Earlier this summer, the state asked for more time to respond to Duckler's appeal and was given until November. He expects the case won't be heard by the Court of Appeals until sometime next year.

Noyes is hopeful she'll win this time, and if she does, she wants the court to return the $5,000 she paid in fines.

"It was devastating to me," said Noyes. "They wiped me out financially."

She wants something for the bears, too.

"I want the bears to be righted, for people to be more tolerant of bears," Noyes said.

As for her old home in Yachats, now rented to tenants, "I don't care to live there anymore."

[jazusamo]

What's that old saying about one picture? LOL!

View full size............................Courtesy of Karen Noyes

Karen Noyes greets a bear at the North America Bear Center in Ely, Minn. Noyes lost her home in Yachats a year ago when she refused to stop feeding bears in her yard.

[jazusamo]

Bear Lady update Ping!

[Jack Hydrazine]

I say let her feed the bears. When she gets eaten by them no more problem!

[Ditter]

I am speechless! (for once) ha!

[jazusamo]

Yep, it’s bound to happen.

[balch3]

except for the other people who get attacked because she taught bears to associate people with food.

[MAexile]

Timothy Treadwell award winner?

[jazusamo]

Just so long as she does her feeding at the North America Bear Center in Ely, Minn. She sure won’t be doing it in OR any longer.

[Jack Hydrazine]

It happened to another lady in California who was feeding bears last year. What is it about women feeding wild or feral animals (cats, bears, etc.)?

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/outposts/2009/08/woman-killed-by-bear.html
Woman killed by bear she had been feeding
August 11, 2009
“A woman who had been warned about the perils of feeding bears was killed by one of the animals.

Donna Munson, a resident of Ouray County, Colo., was found dead outside of her home last week, her body mauled and partially eaten.

According to Joel Burk, Ouray County Sheriff’s investigator, Munson died of multiple traumas. The wounds were consistent with being attacked by a bear.”

[wendy1946]

They need to feed this ###hole judge to the bears.

[wendy1946]

“A woman who had been warned about the perils of feeding bears was killed by one of the animals.

Probably killed by one of the bears she DIDN'T feed...

[jazusamo]

Not sure but I believe theyve got a few screws loose. A woman in CO was eaten about a year ago by a bear she'd been feeding.

Bear Found Feeding on Elderly Woman's Body in Colorado

[jazusamo]

This idiot woman’s neighbors in Yachats seem to have a little different opinion of it than you do.

[jazusamo]

Ha! Didn’t check your link, it was the same woman.

[george76]

Aug. 10, 1993 in Fremont County, Colorado : a 24-year-old man was killed...the black bear went thru the man’s front door and ate the guy over several days ?

No telling if the guy died before or after the eating began

[USNBandit]

The most likely result is that these bears get habituated to looking for human sources for food. Then they get darted and dumped back into the wild. The repeat offenders get destroyed.

Look at the picure of the lady kissing the bear. I've never seen 5 black bears in one place in any documentary and certainly not with my own eyes. That is not normal behavior by either the woman or the bears.

[jazusamo]

Either way it’s a bad way to die, the Treadwell audio attests to it.

[stefanbatory]

those 5 bears are at the bear sanctuary in MN...

[Bean Counter]

If it was just her that was at risk, that would be one thing, but how would you feel if you lived down the street from this dimwit, and repeatedly had black bears try and come through your dog door??

How about if your dog was killed by one of the bears she was feeding??

What if it was your grandchild that got mauled to death by one of her bears??

This woman is yet another in a long line of whack-a-doos that inhabit the Pacifist Northwest. She is likely living proof of what long term marijuana use does to the brain, if not the dangers of the habitual use of hallucinogens in early youth.

Tim Treadwell Syndrome, writ large...except she is a danger to others as well as herself, because she was doing this in a residential neighborhood, not out in the boon-toolies in Alaska like Timmy was....

[USNBandit]

Oops, didn't read that part. Thanks for tightening me up.

They did have to shoot 4 bears in her neighborhood in Oregon in one summer. Not very usual. I grew up about 60 miles from there in the Willamette Valley and bears weren't seen that often.

I have a soft spot for these bears because I lived near Tahoe for several years and the bears there were constantly getting in trouble for dumpster diving. You couldn't cut a tree down in the basin to improve your view or protect your house from wildfires, but they wouldn't require bear proof garbage cans. I never saw bears on the Tahoe Rim, but saw lots of bears cruising through town.

This is what happens when an idiot leaves a pizza on the front seat of his car in Tahoe.