Black bear cub removed from Cochrane Ecological Institute, permit revoked

CALGARY -

Alberta Fish and Wildlife officers removed a black bear cub from a wildlife rehabilitation centre earlier this month and revoked the facility's permit to work with the animals.

The move was made June 1 when Alberta Fish and Wildlife officers removed a cub from the Cochrane Ecological Institute (CEI) and revoked its permit to rehabilitate orphaned black bears.

A hunter was out near Kearl Lake on May 16 and called CEI to report a bear cub had been found covered in bitumen. The hunter called the centre after watching the cub for 12 hours and not seeing its mother anywhere nearby.

The black bear rehabilitation permit states that all recovered black bears must be reported within 24 hours of receiving them. Smeeton was unable to comply with this requirement.

The cub is named Maskwa, which means Bear in Cree. (Cochrane Ecological Institute)

Smeeton says she is very busy at her facility right now and the important thing to her is that the bear cub is safe.

While interviewing Smeeton she said, “I didn't notify them that day and by the time I thought of it, it was 5:30 and they were shut again so I notified them at 8:30 in the morning and based on that they came and took the cub.”

Alberta Fish and Wildlife says Smeeton violated other requirements of the permit, such as having the hunter drive the bear part way to her facility, and not bringing the oil-covered bear to the correct veterinarian.

Smeeton says she feels this is all because she’s butted heads with the government in the past. In 2018, Smeeton argued Alberta’s rewriting of orphaned black bear protocol was misleading, and that has resulted in the province coming down hard on her facility.

A statement released by Alberta Environment and Parks (AEP), spokesperson John Muir stated, "The Cochrane Ecological Institute has repeatedly advocated for outcomes or approaches that contradict science-based protocols.  This can put the safety of bears and public at risk by not following the orphaned black bear protocols and not adhering to the conditions of their permit. Recent actions by Cochrane Ecological Institute that breached permit conditions have left Alberta Environment and Parks no choice but to remove CEI’s authorization to rehabilitate black bear cubs at their facility."

CEI has been rehabilitating orphaned bear cubs since 1985. It has four enclosures to care for the animals including a new 4.5 acre fully treed fenced area built in 2020. Since 2018 when new protocols went into effect, CEI has raised four cubs. In 2019 one of those cubs was released by the province. It was killed when approaching children on private land two weeks later.

With files from Kevin Fleming