Bear Euthanized After Breaking Into Several Canton Homes: DEEP

CANTON, CT — A bear with "no signs of fear or wariness of people" was euthanized after breaking into a Canton home and trying to enter another on Tuesday morning, state officials said.

The bear first tried to get into a home on North Mountain Road through the front door and a window. It was undeterred when the homeowner tried to scare it away by ringing a bell, Department of Energy and Environmental Protection officials said in a news release.

And three hours later, the bear broke into a house on East Hill Road (around 400 yards from the first home).

When its owners returned to their house they found their kitchen ransacked, and environmental conservation officers spotted the bear at the edge of the property with food items it had taken from the home, DEEP said.

"The bear showed no signs of fear or wariness of people — a response not typical of a wild bear," the news release reads.

The decision to euthanize the bear was made based on DEEP guidelines for a bear that has entered or tried to enter homes, has shown no signs of fear or aversion to humans and poses a threat to the public's safety, officials said.

DEEP has received several reports over the last couple of weeks about a bear repeatedly breaking into residences in the area, and officials believe the bear from those reports is the same one that was euthanized.

That belief is in part because the bear from the reports had four cubs, and after DEEP euthanized it Tuesday morning, officials found four six-month-old cubs in a nearby tree.

Environmental conservation officers tranquilized the cubs for evaluation and relocation, but one of them did not revive after the tranquilization and died, officials said.

The other three were "released to a remote wooded area with excellent bear habitat where they can forage for natural food sources free from the risks of human interaction or habituation," the news release reads.

Environmental conservation officers tried to adversely condition the mother bear multiple times, but it continued to break into homes despite those efforts, officials said.

"DEEP set three traps for this bear in an attempt to capture it; but the bear did not enter any of the traps and continued to exhibit increasingly dangerous behavior," the news release reads.

DEEP officials said the habituation of bears is "extremely dangerous" for both the public and the bears themselves, and they reminded the community that bears should never be fed (intentionally or otherwise).