Prescott community asks why escaped bear had to be killed

PHOENIX (AZFamily) — In Dewey, south of Prescott, a bear was killed after escaping from its carrier and running into residential areas.

Jodie Eutsler was working at Billy Jack’s Saloon & Grill when she got word that a bear was roaming the neighborhood, something she had never heard of in the more than 20 years she lived in Dewey.

“I got a call from my boss saying, ‘There’s a bear out there. He’s hanging around the neighborhood, be careful,'” Eutsler said. “Of course I went out and looked for the bear.”

She shared a photo of the bear taken just three blocks behind the bar.

“They make a big joke and say the bear got mad because the bar was open when he came in,” she said. “I would have let the bear in and given him a drink. We could have had a drink together.”

Karen Klima, a regional warden with the Arizona Game and Fish Department, said the bear was captured Monday and held overnight for its own safety.

Then it bit through the metal container, something they had never seen before.

“This was completely new for us with these transport carriers because they are metal carriers. They fit on the back of a truck,” said Klima. “So they are big.”

She explained that for safety reasons, the decision was made to shoot the bear as it ran through the neighborhood.

“We couldn’t tranquilize it with a tranquilizer dart because it was moving so fast that we couldn’t really tranquilize the animal. So we had to kill it,” Klima said.

It is something that is causing turmoil in the community.

“Everyone is upset about this,” Eutsler said. “I mean, if they had time to kill the animal, why didn’t they have time to tranquilize it?”

Klima said the bear’s speed played a big role in the decision and public safety was her top priority.

“With a tranquilizer gun, we need to be able to get a good shot at it, and if a bear is running, we can’t shoot it well. So, since it’s a public safety hazard, we had to remove the animal because it runs in that area.”

She added that there were about 700 calls about bear sightings last year and very few of them required relocation or euthanasia.

Eutsler said she hopes the next bear they try to relocate will turn out differently.

“We are in their territory, I mean, this is their territory that we moved into,” she said.

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