Jan 07 2010
A Day to Remember
In the dark early morning hours of October 10, 2009, a black bear wandered into downtown Ojai, California. After milling around through a few back yards and taking a nap on someone’s patio, he treed himself. As the sun came up, people became aware of this extraordinary Saturday morning spectacle in the center of town and a crowd formed to watch this bear slumber the day away in a tree.
With local Police and the Department of Fish and Game both present, by-standers staring up at the bear asked officials what would happen to him. Many were told he would be given a chance to come down in the quiet of the night so that he could be encouraged back to the forest from which he came. However, a few hours after nightfall, the bear was shot down from the tree with a tranquilizer gun and later euthanized.
The Ojai Wildlife League (OWL) was born in response to what many people felt was an intensely sad and very unnecessary ending to this story.
Still in the beginning stages of formation, OWL is in the process of gathering information about the resources we have as a community so that we can then begin to instill new options for the wildlife that comes into our communities. Our goals are tri-fold: to ensure public safety, educate the public about wild animal encounters and bring about humane and non-lethal wildlife removal.