Third bear put down after spotted at Utah campground

SUMMIT COUNTY, Utah — After officials warned of the drought forcing bears to be closer in proximity to people, a third bear has been euthanized after being spotted at a Utah campground.

The other day, Larry and Shauna Baker stopped by Soapstone Campground off of the Mirror Lake Highway.

“There was garbage thrown all over the place by two of the bins,” said Larry. “My impression, I don’t know if this is right, was that the bins were full and people just started putting their garbage next to the bin.”

According to Northern Region Outreach Manager Mark Hadley, the Division of Wildlife Resources officials put down a two-and-a-half-year-old male bear the other day after it kept coming to eat garbage out of the dumpsters.

“After we euthanize the animal, we performed what’s called a necropsy, and we examined the bear’s stomach,” he said. “It was filled with trash and food from campsites, so that’s the reason that the bear kept coming in to those areas, is it just kept getting rewarded with things that it wanted.”

If a bear is acting aggressively, or showing no fear of humans, DWR’s policy is that it has to be put down.

“The bear is still a wild animal,” he said. “It hasn’t lost its wildness, but it starts to lose its wariness of people. It starts to become less and less scared of people, and so then that creates a very dangerous situation.”

Campers are advised to clean campsites and tables of all food, waste and anything that smells, and to store such items in bear-safe containers or locked vehicles.

“The last thing in the world that we want to do is have to have to euthanize an animal,” he said. “We’re just asking people, begging people, please be responsible when you’re up camping.”

Soapstone Campground remains closed as U.S. Forest Service rangers clean up the damage done by the bear.