This is a series of diaries highlighting animal rescues around the country and noting and celebrating the work they do to help animals who have no voices but ours to speak for them. I have decided to make this a daily series because there are so many wonderful rescues out there who need human help and weekly just doesn't seem to be enough. I have long wanted to start a rescue but lack the resources or time available to do so right now so this is my attempt to do my part. I hope that these rescues will benefit from the kindness and benevolence of the community here at Daily Kos. They are amazing organizations and worthy of Kossack attention and care.
The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated. ~Mahatma Gandhi
Bear With Us Sanctuary and Rehabilitation Centre for Bears - Ontario, Canada
The website is here
You can support our efforts here
About Us
Born and raised on a farm in South Western Ontario, Mike McIntosh values the natural environment and its wildlife which he started photographing as a child. Interested in wildlife and their behavior, Mike became fascinated about perceived dangerous “predators” and human’s misunderstanding of these amazing beings. Mike is especially intrigued by bears given their high intelligence and unique cognitive abilities. For most of his life, bears have been Mike’s focus
Mike has been to Kamchatka Russia, walked among some of the largest bears in existence, travelled to Alaska, the Rockies, observing bears and their behavior. The only weapons Mike feels you need in bear habitat is your brain and a can of pepper spray.
A frequent visitor to the Algonquin Park and area to enjoy and photograph wildlife and nature, Mike moved permanently to the north purchasing an old farmhouse with some acreage (89 acres) with a creek and pond in 1990. He met Audrey Tournay, founder of the Aspen Valley Wildlife Sanctuary (AVWS). Mike volunteered at the AVWS helping injured and orphaned wildlife specifically bears. It wasn’t long after assisting at the AVWS that Mike realized there was such a great need to help the Black Bears and Humans coexist. Mike decided he wanted to devote more of his time to helping the misunderstood bear. Bear in the WildHe decided to approach the OMNR in 1991 about his favored bears and told them he would like to help orphaned cubs, injured bears and also assist the public with “nuisance” bears, more correctly known as human-bear conflict resolution.
Thus in 1992, with the help of some local friends interested in wildlife rehabilitation plus the cooperation of the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources (OMNR), the Bear With Us Sanctuary and Rehabilitation Centre for Bears was formed by Mike McIntosh. It began with his first bear in April 1992, a big old blind bear from a zoo in eastern Ontario. This bear, who Mike and Audrey Tournay named Mishoomish , remained at Bear With Us until his passing. Since its inception, Bear With Us has assisted 340+ orphaned and injured bears return to the wild. Bear With Us is a permanent home to a select few bears that cannot return to the wild.
Bear With Us Inc. and Mike McIntosh are authorized annually by the OMNR (Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources) to rehabilitate and release orphaned wild bear cubs, live trap and relocate perceived nuisance bears and keep black bears in captivity. Since 1992 Mike through Bear With Us has been doing just that while still holding down a regular job at a local automotive dealership.
Mike does speaking engagements to interest groups such as campers in Ontario Parks, local cub-scout packs as well as schools. To Mike, educating people through his presentation “Understanding Bears” is critical to assisting bears and people to coexist.
Bear With Us Mission:To promote the understanding and respect for the bear family, a species near the top of the evolutionary scale, a species in direct niche competition with the human race.
Fulfilling the mission: The four primary areas of operation for Bear With Us are:
1-Black Bear Rehabilitation; orphaned bear cubs and injured bears cared for and returned to the wild in a high state of health.
2-Bear Sanctuary; various species; A comfortable place to stay for permanent non-releasable bears such as ex-circus bears, zoo excess or illegal pet confiscations.
3-Education;
(a)-Off location slide/video presentations for groups at Provincial Parks, schools, cub and guides, other young people’s groups, nature clubs and more.
(b)-Comprehensive website, Facebook page and a special educational Facebook page for Molly Bear.
(c)-One on one phone conversations and email responses to individuals with questions regarding bears.
4-Conflict Resolution; Assisting people and bears to coexist together. Individual consultation with people about how not to encourage or discourage a nuisance bear by removing food attractants, live trapping and relocating individual bears when other potential solutions have been exhausted.
Meaningful Quotes:
“Appreciate, view with respect, maybe take a photo, allow them to exist, coexist. They will if we will”. -Mike McIntosh
“If you talk with the animals, they will talk with you, and you will know each other. If you don’t talk with them, you will not know them, and what you do not know, you fear. What one fears, one destroys.” ~Chief Dan George
Mike with Camera“When we return wild animals to nature, we merely return them to what is already… theirs, For man cannot give wild animals freedom, they can only take it away.” ~Jacques Cousteau~
“Bears keep me humble. They help me to keep the world in perspective and to understand where I fit on the spectrum of life. We need to preserve the wilderness and its monarchs for ourselves, and for the dreams of children. We should fight for these things as if our life depended upon it, because it does.” - Wayne Lynch (“Bears: Monarchs of the Northern Wilderness”, 1993)
Understanding Bears
How Do Bears React to People?
Bear with CubBlack bears may enter camps or your cottage or home, especially when wild foods are scarce, but they rarely attack people.
Black bears usually retreat before people are aware of them. Their hearing is more sensitive than a human’s, and their broad, soft foot pads allow them to move quietly downwind where they can best identify their dangers. They may stand upright to see farther (not a sign of aggressiveness). If need be, they can run faster than 25 mph or climb trees quickly.
They generally prefer to forage for wild foods away from people but are almost as quick as chipmunks to seek food in campsites and garbage cans when wild nut and berry crops fail. They rarely attack people. Campground bears and roadside panhandlers may nip or cuff people that crowd around them, try to pet them, or tease them with food. But the injuries, if any, are usually slight, only occasionally requiring stitches.
Full-blown attacks by black bears are rare. Black bears attacks are usually not at campgrounds and are usually not by black bears that are familiar with people. How likely is a black bear to be a killer? The 500,000 black bears in North America kill fewer than one person per 3 years, on the average, despite hundreds of thousands of encounters. To put this in perspective, for each death from a black bear across North America, there are approximately 17 deaths from spiders, 25 deaths from snakes, 67 deaths from dogs, 150 deaths from tornadoes, 180 deaths from bees and wasps, 374 deaths from lightning, and 90,000 homicides in the United States alone (data from the National Center for Health Statistics, 1980-1983). In the rare event of one of these attacks, the best defense is to fight with fists, feet, rocks, or anything hard.
Playing dead is usually not the best action with black bears.
Unlike grizzly bear mothers, black bear mothers seldom attack people in defense of cubs. Black bear mothers typically bluff or retreat. Researchers who routinely capture cubs by chasing them up trees have not been attacked even when they have held the screaming cubs. The ferocity of mother black bears is one of the biggest misconceptions about this species.
People need correct information about bear behaviour and their biological requirements. This allows an appreciation for these animals and encourages the will to coexist. People and bears can coexist.
Bears are very strong and quick. Bears can be dangerous, however, the possibility of a bear harming people is overstated . Bears have the power to inflict great damage but for some reason they exhibit tremendous restraint when dealing with people. Bears that allow themselves to be seen by people don’t tend to be a threat to human safety. This is documented. In addition, so called nuisance bears have not attacked and killed anybody that there is record of. Some times a bears nervous behavior is misinterpreted for actions of aggression and the bear is unfairly dispatched.
Education about bear behavior can reduce the need to live trap and relocate but the need does arise. Relocation of a bear should be a last resort to solving a people/bear conflict. A good reason for relocating a bear is when human activity is too hard to manage. Examples are parks, schools and areas where the number of people reduce the opportunity to encourage the bear to move on by removing the attractant (ie-peoples food, bird seed, food for pets).
Conflict Resolution – Human and Bear ie: Nuisance bears
Successively relocating a bear with a full stomach greatly reduces the chance of that bear homing immediately. Relocate to an area featuring good bear habitat and release a bear that is comfortable because it is not thirsty or hungry will reduce the chance of return because the animal is content enough to explore the new area instead of thinking only of a bellyache and quickly returning to an area where the bear knows it can find something to eat. Some bears will return. My experience has been about one in ten relocated bears return to the area of conflict as identified by an ear tag.
Only move females with cubs when all options are exhausted.
The bears well being and long term survival are carefully considered as well as people’s fear and concerns.
Human-Bear Coexistence
How Bears Become Nuisances
Lone BearBears will travel more than 100 km to a known food source, such as a berry patch or a stand of beech trees. Bears are highly intelligent and will learn where other food sources can be found and seek them out. They can easily learn to re- visit your back-yard or campsite once they have determined that food can be found there. The majority of bear problems occur as a result of improperly stored household garbage. Bears quickly learn to associate human residences and campsites with a readily available food source.
Bears are also attracted to pet food that is left outdoors, bird feeders, barbecues, composters, fruit trees, beehives, sweetcorn and grain fields. Garbage dumps provide a concentration of readily available food that often attracts bears. Bears lose their natural fear of humans through repeated exposure to people in areas where food is intentionally or unintentionally provided. Two BearsIn such cases, conflict with humans is inevitable; bears may even become destructive or dangerous. Such bears are often destroyed because they have become a “nuisance” or are perceived as a threat to human safety. That is why you should never intentionally feed bears or place food to attract wildlife to your yard for viewing.