Beary Ignorant

We have been having bear trouble this spring. People have been leaving their trash outside without any thought to the bears. This encourages easy meals for the bears and puts everyone in danger.
There was the bear that gave me a visit and climbed in and out of my yard very adeptly. I thought the row of thorn bushes at the front of my property would discourage the bears as the brush has 1-2″ thorns on it. The bear showed me just how easy it is to walk right through it.
I have a friend here that was outside speaking to his neighbor a couple of nights ago. A bear walked into their line of sight, and the neighbor decided to take a candid shot of him and the bear (how many languages can you say stupid in?). My friend kept telling his neighbor that this was a terrible decision. But he decided against taking this wise advice. He got closer and closer to this bear until the bear reared up and stood on his hind legs. My friend went to go get his gun while the neighbor ran into his house. He read the mood of the bear in human terms, and you can’t do that.
There is a false belief that when bears stand on their hind legs, they are looking for a better vantage point. When a bear stands on its hind legs, it is showing intense interest. I don’t know about you, but I would rather be invisible to the bear than draw its interest.
The sad fact is when a bear becomes a nuisance, the state of California fish and game offer a license for the property owner to put the animal down. So should this bear have scratched or knocked the ignorant neighbor down, this would spell the end of the bear. How far must ignorance go before we wipe out all that remains of the black bear population? We accomplished that with the grizzly bear.