PBSO didn't need to fire at black bear shot, killed in Royal Palm Beach, FWC report says

ROYAL PALM BEACH — Palm Beach County sheriff's deputies shouldn't have shot and killed a juvenile Florida black bear last week, hours after it was seen roaming through the backyards of a residential neighborhood, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission said.

The state agency released a report late Friday citing its disappointment over PBSO’s handling of the situation that resulted in the killing of a species protected under Florida law.

"Killing bears is generally the last course of action and is typically due to concerns over public safety,” stated FWC’s report. It also advised deputies should receive training on how to respond when bears are found near homes.

The best course of action is usually to allow the bear to wander away from any homes and back into the wilderness, FWC said.

That happened a day after the shooting when residents of a gated community in Naples spotted a mature, medium-sized Florida black bear strolling through their sidewalks, garages, and front porches. Instead of calling FWC or local police, residents waited inside their homes until the bear left the neighborhood.

While FWC says it did not authorize the sheriff's office to kill the bear, PBSO said Monday that it stands by its decision, saying that deputies had to protect the residents of the nearby neighborhoods.

"We believe we were in a public safety situation,” spokesperson Teri Barbera said. “We were faced to make that decision.”

Health care: Lakeside Medical Center to shut down its baby-delivery unit, citing a steep drop in births

A sign of Wellington's growth: Publix plans makeovers, expansions of 2 supermarkets in village

Polo club sold: U.S. Polo Association to buy Wellington's International Polo Club, add events

How a Royal Palm Beach neighborhood found a bear in a tree

Black bears are native to Florida but are rarely seen in Palm Beach County, the FWC report said. The mating season of the shy, and generally not aggressive bears, began in June when juveniles, like the one shot in Royal Palm Beach, disperse from their mothers and travel to other habitats.

Susan Hargreaves, who’s advocated for South Florida's wildlife for decades, said she was disappointed with the lack of training Palm Beach County deputies receive.

“Those officers didn't wake up that morning and think, 'I'm now going to kill a bear,' ” said Hargreaves, who founded the charity Animal Kid's Hero. “But they need educating. It's as simple as that.”

She started treating endangered species in Fort Lauderdale in the 1980s and now offers wildlife training to local groups and also writes children's books centered on animal protection. This month, a bear with similar characteristics to the one in Royal Palm Beach was reported near her home in Jupiter Farms.

"If the bear had been left alone, it would have moved on," she said.

Neighbors in Saratoga Lakes, a community off Crestwood Boulevard west of Royal Palm Beach Boulevard, alerted deputies to the bear at about 8 a.m. Saturday. They reported seeing a 6-foot, 300-pound black bear roaming through the trees and backyards of the neighborhood.

FWC officers and PBSO deputies arrived on Belmont Drive at 8:09 a.m. where they began following the bear until it climbed a tree in a family's backyard, according to the FWC report.

The bear came down after a short period of time and strolled west before climbing up a large pine tree along a neighbor's fence. For almost four hours FWC officers and deputies shouted at the bear and turned on their sirens in an attempt to keep the bear from coming down the tree.

At first, the FWC staff tried locating a trapper and a tranquilizer gun, but none were available nearby, according to the report. Then members decided not to recommend laying traps because they could not ensure the bear would walk into them. They also concluded that shooting the bear with a tranquilizer gun over fear could cause it to fall from the tree and become injured.

According to the agency’s protocol, if the bear is not a threat, it should return to its natural habitat so it doesn't have to be harmed or relocated by force.

“A bear that is easily scared off by people is not a safety threat,” read FWC’s statement.

The agency’s team biologist in Tallahassee ordered FWC officers to leave the bear alone and to escort it from a distance until it reached a safe habitat.

PBSO says it had authority to shoot bear over FWC's objections

PBSO deputies informed the sergeant in command that FWC officers would let the bear roam but, according to the FWC report, they were then ordered to neutralize the bear if it came down from the tree before a trapper arrived on the scene.

After a four-hour standoff, the bear climbed down off the tree at around 12:30 p.m. and was moving away from the officers, without showing signs of aggression when PBSO deputies shot the bear four times, according to the report.

The bear collapsed to the ground after the first shot, when it tried moving a second officer fired two shots. The officer who fired the initial bullet then “took a merciful shot so the bear did not suffer," a sheriff's report said.

FWC staff members then drove the bear's body to their Jupiter office.     

"The two deputies with shotguns did express to me that they did not want to shoot the Florida black bear,” wrote the FWC officer in the report. “The deputies followed PBSO orders and not FWC's plan of action.”

The sheriff’s office was not authorized by FWC to kill the bear, said the agency’s report. And despite consistent reminders on the scene that the bear was from a protected species, the sheriff's top officer at the scene said his agency had authority from the chain of command to neutralize it.

The commanding officer made the decision because there was nowhere safe for the bear to go on its own nearby, Barbera said.

“PBSO believed there was a public safety danger to that community,” said Barbera. “Going to the North, South, East and West there is nothing but residential neighborhoods, roadways and businesses.”

FWC's report identified, however, four nearby wildlife areas where the bear could have gone with two being less than 2 miles away.

“FWC bear experts did not consider killing the bear since FWC law enforcement on the scene never observed any indication that the bear was a threat to public safety,” read the report.

The sheriff’s office said it doesn't have any staff members trained to deal with wildlife incidents. For that reason, it doesn't own a tranquilizer gun that can only be administered by animal specialists.

“We did what we believe we had to do at that time,” said Barbera, adding deputies involved in the incident are not facing internal investigations. “We are looking to the veterinarians in the area to see whether or not there's anybody available to assist them in a time of need,”

Activists hope this will incident will raise consciousness among county residents and the sheriff's office about learning how to live with wildlife.

"We Floridians, whether we're native or adopted, we have to respect that we're moving into their home," said Hargreaves. "It's imperative that we educate others about wildlife coexistence."

Valentina Palm covers Royal Palm Beach, Wellington, Loxahatchee and other western communities in Palm Beach County for The Palm Beach Post. Email her at vpalm@pbpost.com and follow her on Twitter at @ValenPalmB.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: FWC: PBSO didn't need to shoot, kill bear wandering in Royal Palm Beach