Former senator seeks protection from bear advocates
By Jeff DeLong, Reno Gazette-Journal
A former Nevada lawmaker who claims harassment by bear advocates at his Lake Tahoe home has filed a request for a protective order with Washoe County authorities.
William O’Donnell, who served as a Republican state senator representing Las Vegas from 1987 to 2001 and previously as a state assemblyman, filed a request Tuesday at the Incline Village Justice Court seeking an order for “protection against stalking, aggravated stalking or harassment” by members of the Bear League, including founder Ann Bryant.
O’Donnell contends members of the nonprofit bear advocacy group interfered with efforts by the Nevada Department of Wildlife to capture a bear that had damaged his Incline Village vacation home. It is the second such case to wind up in local courts in the past year involving claims that people seeking help from Nevada wildlife officials regarding problem-causing black bears were subjected to harassment by bear advocates.
I only wish I had done more to stop the slaughter as we see no more bears in the Upper Lake Valley. A crazy man with goats thought the goats could protect themselves (as he told me) and when a Mt Lion got to them, he killed everything in sight (and out of sight) and hung the hides on a fence behind his house. Some people are not meant to live around wildlife. Ann Bryant gave us perfectly good advice when we had bears near the house and the advice worked. No dead bears- no bear problems, imagine that!
those Bear folks are not thinking straight.
problem Bears need to go to Bear Heaven.
Problem people create the problem bear. Remove the source of the problem (trash or access to human or pet food), bear moves on. No problem. This isn’t rocket science.
Coexistence!
Isee, The Bear League was very helpful in helping with the PEOPLE problem where I live. People putting trash out where the bears get to it easily making a big mess.
I am not a spokesman for the bear advocates or the Bear League, but we need to train the PEOPLE how to live with the bears!
Wake up folks! We live in the Sierras and there is alot of wildlife around here. We adjust to them as they have adjusted to us.
Live with the animals and don’t kill them.
Take care and be bear aware. OLS
This man does not know how to live in Bear Country, He needs to be trapped and move the hell away from Incline, Hit the road and dont come back,
Problem chiefs need to go to chief hell.
In my opinion, O”Donnell sounds like a typical overly-entitled whiner who wants all creatures great and small to fall in line with his whims. I don’t know why this problem wasn’t alleviated when the dog food was removed from the garage. Remove the dog food and any other food items, clean the area with something to kill the food odors and forget about it. Was it still necessary to set the trap for the bear who was only doing what bears do?
I think everyone at Incline who phones Nevada Fish and Wildlife about “problem bears” damaging their homes should automatically be required to install a bear box. Its always about problem bears when it should be more about the “problem people”.
Chief, maybe problem people need to go to people heaven? You can hold the door open…
The Bear League caused the bear problem. They interfered with existing bear abatement practices and massively increased the problem. Sorry I have the right to store dog food in my garage. These fanatics wont be happy until we all have a bear under our deck, then they will want us to remove the deck.
Are you that stupid and heartless that you cannot make simple concessions to alleviate a problem of your own making? Put your dog food where bears are not attracted to it.
nature: Maybe you can use your gun. OHHH, that’s right…you are scared of guns. It is best to know your limitations. Be mindful if you hang with the likes of Ann (whacko) Bryant, she is sure to create a public nuisance and get you arrested. No brag, just fact.
The willfully ignorant refuse to understand how to co-exist with wildlife in a High Sierra environment such as Lake Tahoe- Educate yourselves about how bears, coyotes, raccoons, beavers, squirrels, rodents, birds etc. fit in our unique mountain town- or by all means get the rush out-
This poor fellow. Let’s kill all the squirrels that may bother him as well. He should be able to have a bbq and leave food out and not worry about all the creatures that have been here for longer than any people. Nobody should ever have to keep their food or trash well-sealed. After they trap this bear, throw Odonnel in a second trap and send them both out into the deep wilderness!
When a bear gets into your trash because it was easy to get to, thats YOUR problem. If the bear breaks into
your garage going after some bag of dog food, thats YOUR problem. If a bear pushes in the window to your car going after a half eaten apple, that’s YOUR problem.Keep the food away from the animals. OLS
OK fanatics should I store the dog food in my house so the bear breaks into the house???
You really are that stupid. You don’t keep your pantry stocked, there is not food in the refrigerator? Your statement is absurd. Much less chance a bear would attempt to break in to the house.
SunriserDerp-buy a clue-of course you store pet food in the house
Sunrise, I store my dogfood in the house in a container and feed my two dogs in the house (60 to 70lb Aussie and Aussie/border). It is no more an attractant to bears the the garbage under my sink or the food I keep in my pantry – which I also keep in airtight containers.
I have a nice steel bear box, no bird feeder, feed my dogs in the house, and do not store any food in our cars or outside and keep all foods in the house.
We regularly have bears roaming around our street and have never had any problems of bears breaking into the house. Common sense does a reasonably good job of minimizing conflicts.
Rick
I agree, this man brought the bear problem on himself by either his lack of awareness or by his own carelessness. I have a couple of suggestions since, clearly, many people are going to continue to put bears in danger through their own negligence.
1. Everyone who buys a house in the Tahoe basin should be given a packet of educational material on co-existing with wildlife and sign a form acknowledging receipt of this information. Ignorance is a curable condition.
2. Subsequently, homeowners should be required to have bear cans after their first offense of violating the directions given in the materials they were provided.
3. Every vacation rental and apartment complex should be required to have a bear proof can. “Out of towners” can not be expected to know how to prevent attracting bears and other critters.
Apartment renters don’t have a choice except for the garbage receptacle provided to them and apartment complexes seem to draw a lot of the bears due to the large amount of centralized food garbage. The cost of the bear proof cans can be factored into the rental fees until paid for.
4. For those who are not new home buyers or vacation rental owners, I suggest they be given the educational packet on the first offense. Second offense (if there is one)=mandatory bear proof can.
5. I suggest we look at having a ballot measure for a small tax on Tahoe Basin residents that will fund bear proof cans for those who cannot afford them.
These are just a few suggestions, given that it is clear that some humans will continue to endanger our wildlife. Education efforts alone are clearly not working.
Let’s keep our wildlife safe.
Janice Eastburn, All good points about bears and food!
With a little knowledge about their behavior, the bears and the humans will all be better off!
Take care and be bear aware. OLS
Coexisting with bears and living with ridiculous populations that have been trained to be hazardous to humans are two different things. I find it disgusting that the bear league always blames everything on everyone but themselves and the bears. Even if this guy is doing something wrong, that doesn’t make it OK to stalk and harass him.
If the liberals would stop feeding the bears and acclimating them to humans, and allow reasonable hunting programs, we’d be in a lot better shape. It’s not like we’re nothing in this world. Don’t we have a place on the food chain too? Can’t we protect our territory just like ALL other creatures do? There are millions of acres of untouched wilderness for the bears. I fail to see how keeping them out of a few acres around town will be the end of the world.
The Bear League headquarters on W Lake Blvd is about 400ft from the lake and they do not have their BMP cert. You would think the organizer of such a group would want to protect the clarity of the lake as well… In fact, of the 13 board members/staff of the Bear League, only one has their BMP cert, 5 do not and 7 are not found in the system.
Green grass, where do you come up with the assumption that “liberals” are feeding the bears? People who are either ignorant or careless are the culprits here; not people of a particular political affiliation. Yes, bears have plenty of room in the wild. The problem is the food sources in the wild are less abundant than in neighborhoods where people are providing food to the bears through their own careless practices. When bears are foraging in neighborhoods the humans to blame; not the bears. The bears are just feeding at the buffet left for them by the people who do not take proper precautions. Killing these magnificent creatures is not the answer. Humans taking responsibility for their actions (and, by doing so, eliminating the problem), is. This is a solvable problem.
Green Grass,
You assume the owner is being truthful that he was stalked. Then you label these people “liberals”
If you want people to take you seriously, back up your name calling with facts.
Ten years ago I thought that collecting garbage later in the morning would encourage people to put their garbage out in the AM rather than at night and be a part of the solution to problem bears.
I called the garbage company and was told that it was impossible because of traffic.
I then called the Bear League because I thought it would take political pressure to make the garbage company do this. The Bear League was not interested in this idea.
I guess it did not provide enough opportunity for Ann Bryant to pose in front of the cameras in her sunglasses.
Fortunately now garbage collection starts later and that is part of the solution.
So the Bear League is not always interested in solutions that do not come from them or increase their visibility.
Any way you look at the issue the league has made it MUCH worse.
Watch Blond vs Bear. Attention who#@!(*.
They remind me of the nuts that built the toad tunnel in Davis.
“You really are that stupid. You don’t keep your pantry stocked, there is not food in the refrigerator? Your statement is absurd. Much less chance a bear would attempt to break in to the house.”
Just wait a couple of years. The league already has helped introduce bears to Carson City and Reno.
Janice Eastburn and Tahoe Alive: The people who deliberately feed the bears are the warm fuzzy ignorant liberals who think it’s nice for the bears. The people who think they’re protecting the bears are the one’s causing the most harm of all.
There are too many bears here in the first place, so I don’t see the problem with a few moderated hunts every now and then. I would much rather hunt a healthy wild animal for meat and keep the population under control than buy a cow that spent it’s entire life knee deep in crap with it’s head stuck through bars eating GMO feed.
How many Bears have you seen Green Ass ? Not enough.
some of the comments here are unbearable.
ziiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiing!
So Greengrass I guess you fall into to the category of hard and icy conservatives who dip small animals into gasoline and light them on fire to watch them suffer.
My above statement is every bit as true as your absurd statement.
Bryant is a complete nuisance (always has been) and even gives the bears names. Seriously??? I am a hunter but choose not to hunt bears. If I did hunt them I wouldn’t hunt a Tahoe bear. They eat garbage and would taste just like it.
Greengrass=ignorant finger pointer
OLS. This reminds me of a trip to Yosemite years ago. I stayed near the Housekeeping Camps. Nearby was a family of 5 or 6. All the kids had candy of every kind. I made a prediction that bears would visit their site that night and sure enough a Mother and two Cubs showed up. A Park Ranger pointed out the garbage, wrappers, dirty dishes etc strewn about the site to the family and they acted completely dumbfounded… clueless.
Mr. O’Donnell, this isn’t Las Vegas.
Amazing some of the amateur moves you’ll see in campgrounds. Your Yosemite story reminded me of the last time we went to Yosemite, on a whim, and got the last campsite on valley floor available. Right by the restroom. There’s an open door in the facility with a low slung oval basin set close to the floor. It’s for dumping porta-potties, and it has a faucet for rinsing them out. I can’t tell you how many people I saw washing their dishes in that thing. Didn’t know whether to laugh or hurl.
Bears attraction to human’s food and trash is a long ongoing problem. Some people just don’t get it and keep leaving out food for the bears and other animals where it’s easy for the animals to get at and make a big mess of your trash or maybe your house.
This often results in the bear being hit by a car while it wanders around in the dark or shot by some drunken loon with a gun who sees a big furry target.
There are also those that don’t realize we have a lot of bears around here and leave food in their cars or sitting outside their homes.
A fed bear is a dead bear. Old Long Skiis
Kit-Suck an egg for making personal attacks on the Bryants. Seriously, shame on you.
Kits, not even worth being bear food, now he is a pile of bear scat though…