Updated: Wed Apr. 08 2009 11:42:36

The Canadian Press

NORTH VANCOUVER, B.C. — Orphaned black bear cubs from the Vancouver area will have a new rehab centre to call home until they can be released back into the wild.

Environment Minister Barry Penner says the facility will give juvenile black bears a chance to develop their natural foraging and denning skills so they can survive on their own.

The facility to be located on Fromme Mountain in North Vancouver will be an extension of the Critter Care Wildlife Society's centre in Langley.

The 32-hectare centre will be off-limits to the public and will be able to handle up to 25 bears at a time.

Black bears are sometimes orphaned after their mothers have to be destroyed because they've wandered into residential areas like North Vancouver, where they prowl for food in garbage bins.

About 700 bears are killed every year in B.C. because they become a danger to the public after they wander into neighbourhoods.

Please Add Comments(4)

Meredith in PoCo
Great idea. 700 hundred dead bears a year is just an insane number.

humans need to WISE UP
700 bears?!
that disgusts me to no end.
humans can certainly come up with solutions no? We can invent marvelous technology but can't lift a finger (unless to shoot a gun) to solve a problem WE created.

we SUCK as a species!

maggie c in sudbury
I agree with Meridith.

Where I live live trapped bears get the s**t scared out of them with bear bangers, coffee beans shot at them and any other noise.

Before the bear is let out of the trap their butts are painted white.

It works. I mean, scaring them, making them afraid to be near humans.

Granted, this does not always work as there are bad bears.

I don't like seeing or hearing of any wildlife being shot.

Thanks for reading this.

Barb Murray
So the gov't is promising the same $400,000 from election promise in 2005 to save baby bears in the lower mainland. None of that money is going to non-profit, licensed rehabbers but to a multi-million dollar corporation to expand their zoo holdings. This project was not peer reviewed by expert bear rehabbers and it is bogus! Bears have been successfully rehabbed for 30yrs in North America and in other countries. They do not need 'middle' school. Read Smiling Bears by Poulen or Among the Bears by Kilham and read Dr. John Beecham's comprehensive report on bear rehab around the world from '07. A zoo keeper should not keep rehab bears, it is a conflict of interest and will have a profit motive and could compromise the rehab process. Also Fromme Mtn is one of the busiest mountain bike's mountians in the world. Helicopters and planes fly over head all year round etc..Give the money to the small non-profits to share and expand their facilities for cubs that need releasing at 18mos..and they will be just fine! 1000 bears on average are killed as nuisance bears and many are cubs...they will not send all the cubs to Grouse...too many! Sad, but true.