Story of 3 bears revives Tahoe debate

HOMEWOOD - Before the threats to burn it down or paint it blood red, the cabin nestled in the woods on Tanager Drive near Lake Tahoe was clearly owned by bear lovers.

The front door featured a bear artfully etched in glass. A wood-carved bruin had a cherished place in a bedroom. And on the hour, when a cuckoo clock chimed, bears circled a merry-go-round and bobbed on a teeter-totter.

Then, three real bears -- a mother and two cubs that had denned under the house -- busted in while Russ and Diane Tonda were away, ripping furniture, defecating on the floor, and prompting the couple to have them killed. Angry bear activists have dubbed them bear killers.

"I don't know anything about bears, other than it's been a nightmare," Russ Tonda said Thursday.

Now, as a prosecutor weighs whether to bring charges in the killings and sheriff's deputies investigate human vandalism at the house in the aftermath, the incident has reopened a debate over how to deal with Lake Tahoe's growing bear problem.

It seems everyone who's spent time at Tahoe has a bear story. You overhear them at the convenience store, the bakery, even on ski chairlifts -- tales of bears breaking into cars, walking into houses and swiping pies off windowsills.

With a growing population encroaching on their turf, bears have adapted, and many have adopted a diet of human food. Bears have literally come out of the woods for the easy pickings in subdivisions circling the alpine lake.

A 2003 study of black bears in the Tahoe basin found they had limited their range from 150 square miles to residential neighborhoods; didn't hibernate as long, or at all, because they could Dumpster-dive all winter; and they are much fatter than your average bears.

As a result, human-bear interaction has been on the rise. In cases such as the Tondas', bears often hibernate beneath cabins that are vacant much of the winter.

The discovery of uninvited guests often leads to panic. What happens next can determine the fate of the bear.

If the state Department of Fish and Game is called, it advises people how to roust the bears from their den, an option most people resist. They also provide information on obtaining a permit to kill a troublesome bear. Relocating bears is not an option.

If a complaint goes to the Placer County sheriff, it refers calls to the Bear League, a 900-member group dedicated to saving the creatures by teaching people how to live among wildlife and scaring the heck out of bears that are too comfortable around people.

At the center of the Tonda controversy is the league's founder, Ann Bryant, a passionate animal lover.

She was rehabilitating wildlife 61/2 years ago when she started the organization after a meddlesome bear was trapped and killed. She illegally raised one of its orphan cubs and her activism has led to two brushes with the law: once for having a loaded weapon and another time for relocating a bear.

Bryant and her disciples employ a tough love approach to bears, hazing them with noisemakers and shooting them with paintball guns or rubber buckshot. In the case of bears that have broken into a house, that approach is applauded by some wildlife experts, considered foolish by others.

Carl Lackey, a wildlife biologist for the state of Nevada who responds to bear calls on the eastern side of the lake, said the Bear League is effectively educating people about bears but should leave hazing to professionals.

When Bryant got the call from the Tondas in January, she responded immediately. It was the worst damage she'd ever seen. Furniture was tossed about, cabinets were broken and electrical wiring and heating ducts were destroyed.

Tonda initially estimated the loss at $100,000 but now says that figure was probably too high.

Bryant climbed through a trap door into a crawl space beneath the house and saw one bear sleeping there. She offered to have a backhoe dig a path through the snow and she would scare the bear out, but she said the couple wanted to let the bear sleep.

Tonda said he never made such a vow. After talking to his insurance company, he contacted Fish and Game, got a permit to kill one bear and hired three men to do the job.

What happened Feb. 4, when the hunters arrived at the cabin thinking they were gunning for one bear, is disputed.

The men said the startled cubs charged and they had to kill them in self-defense, Fish and Game biologist Patrick Foy said. A distraught Bryant, who arrived after the shooting, doesn't think the bears would have charged. She also said she felt deceived by the Tondas.

The Department of Fish and Game found the hunters' story plausible and did not recommend charging the hunters or the Tondas with a crime. Bryant and others called on prosecutors to charge them because they only had a permit to kill one bear.

The Placer County district attorney's office is still investigating, deputy prosecutor Chris Cattran said.

In the meantime, the Tondas have received death and arson threats. Bryant said she received 500 calls in three days after the incident from outraged people as far away as Maine; some vowing to get even.

At the PDQ Market, down the street from where the killings took place, manager Barbara Welnetz said the issue has been alive ever since. Angry customers posted fliers on the wall inside the store telling the Tondas to get out of town.

Welnetz said she didn't hear one customer speak in favor of the killings but said there was sympathy for the Tondas after the Tahoe World newspaper recently published an op-ed piece with their side of the story.

With the busier summer season coming, Welnetz removed the fliers and cute pictures of bears behind the checkout counter in the hope that the topic will die.

"This is a small neighborhood store," she said. "My employees get pretty vocal. People feel so strongly about this bear issue that I don't want to encourage talk of these bear killings."

The Tondas had talked about selling their place, but they don't want to leave Tahoe, where they've been vacationing for 40 years.

They've vowed to fix the place, which has been boarded up since $5,000 to $7,000 in human vandalism was discovered Feb. 26.

It's interesting to compare a news story as it is reported by different 'news' sourses ~ case in point, from the SacBee:

Shooting of bears stirs outcry
The animals had invaded a cabin, but an advocate calls the deaths senseless.
By Barbara Barte Osborn -- Bee Correspondent
Published 2:15 am PST Thursday, February 10, 2005

TAHOMA - Public reaction to the shooting Friday of three bears - a mother and two yearling cubs hibernating beneath a west Lake Tahoe cabin - is so intense the homeowners who authorized it fear for their lives.

"It's a nightmare - every other call is a threat from someone who's going to burn down my cabin or shoot me on sight," Russ Tonda said Wednesday.

Several weeks ago, the Granite Bay man and his wife discovered about $100,000 in damage to a cabin they've owned for 40 years in the Chamberlands neighborhood here. The culprits apparently were the bears, which had entered the crawl space through an unsecured door.

The bear family had helped themselves to food from the pantry and to couch cushions and blankets from the beds.

"It was the worst damage I've ever seen in a house," said Ann Bryant, director of the 900-member BEAR League, which works to help people and bears live in harmony.

Called by Placer County sheriff's deputies, Bryant discovered the adult bear, a small sow sleepily looking up from a red comforter. With her flashlight, Bryant did not spot the two blond yearling cubs apparently behind their mother.

The Tondas initially decided to leave the bear alone and with Bryant's help, secured a trapdoor into the house by placing heavy furniture and firewood on it.

Tonda said Bryant advised him and his wife to leave the bear undisturbed. "She said if we chased it out, it would not survive in the elements," he said.

But the insurance company refused inspection until the bear was gone, and Tonda contacted state Department of Fish and Game officials. Learning they wouldn't move the bear, he obtained a permit and hired three men to shoot the animal.

Bryant's account differs.

"I came out from under that house and said, 'We've got to get that bear out of there,' but they both insisted it be left alone," she said of the Tondas.

"I said I would call a friend with a backhoe to clear away the snow that had built up around the entrance. Then I would enter ... and shoot a blank behind it. After it ran out, I would put Pine-Sol inside and board up the entrance, and it would not come back."

She said she would advise leaving a bear under a house only if it were a sow that had just given birth and the babies might die if chased out.

"And then I would leave it only if the homeowner wanted it to stay, there had been no damage and the home was secured," she said. "I work with the sheriff's office doing at least one of these aversions a week - sometimes three a week. The bears have summer resting places, and they'll soon find one of those and make a new den."

Bryant said she was shocked that the Tondas did not want the bear removed. She was even more shocked when she learned that instead of calling her to chase the bear away later, they had hired men to shoot it.

Tonda defended his actions Wednesday: "I have five grandchildren. The last thing I want is for them to see a bear, panic and run. ...

"We feel terrible that the bears had to be killed," he said. "Home break-ins are becoming a major problem up there, and it's only going to get worse."

Bryant said the number of bears sleeping under houses has increased because people feed them, and they learn to feel comfortable in the neighborhood.

"Many of those houses are second homes or have weekend renters, and they either don't know better or deliberately leave out garbage, bird feeders and other food," she said.

Bryant said she was devastated when, called to the house again by deputies, she found three officers, along with "three bloody assassins and three dead bears - a mom and two yearling cubs."

According to a report by Placer Sheriff's Deputy John Lasagna, Tonda hired three Sacramento men to kill the bears.

Bryant wants the men charged with negligent shooting in a neighborhood or for shooting three bears with a permit for only one. However, state and county officials said they doubt criminal charges will be filed.

The deputy's report said the men "ended up shooting all of the bears in either self-defense or to put them out of their misery after being wounded."

"I believe ... that the shots were not fired negligently or with a willful disregard for public safety," Lasagna's report said.

Fish and Game Capt. Mark Lucero said the agency is looking into the fact that three bears were killed although the permit was for one bear.

"The guys said when they entered, the bears attacked and they had to kill all three," he said. "Who are we to say that didn't happen?" Placer County Deputy District Attorney Christopher Cattran said. "My gut feeling is it probably didn't, but I doubt criminal charges can be filed against them. Ann Bryant is frustrated, and I understand, but any charges would have to come from a law-enforcement agency."

Fish and Game Warden Vada Comacho, who arrived soon after the shooting, disposed of the dead bears.

Lucero said a trapper or other person authorized to shoot a bear is required by the permit to dispose of it properly. But Comacho said he took action because the scene was so contentious.

Bryant said the shooters "were furious and cussed at us and threatened us when they weren't allowed to take the bears' carcasses."

She said the bears' gall bladders and claws could have been sold for as much as $20,000.

Tonda, who was at the cabin at the time of the shooting but left when Bryant arrived, said his phones had been ringing constantly ever since. In addition to the threats, he said he was getting calls of support.

"What's needed is communication and a total program so that (the bears) can be tranquilized and relocated, but Fish and Game doesn't have the funding for that," he said.

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