Bears do not eat bird seed or cattle feed. They may eat roots and berries if they are short on food, but they are carnivores. This bear was not after seed and feed.

Au contraire. Although black bears are classified as carnivores, the bulk of their diet is vegetation. For most bears, the only meat they get comes from insects. Berries and nuts make up most of a bear's diet in the fall. It's when they are short on those things that they may prey on livestock or other wildlife. Some bears will travel more than a hundred miles to get berries and nuts. They'll then return to their home range to hibernate.

Exactly, the mother in law has had one eating out of the bird feeder.

most cattle feeds are really high in molasses and beet pulp content. Both sweet items that a black bear will tear up.

R

Time to fire up the BBQ with bear burgers.

Ask someone who baits bears.....from what I've seen they use suet, doughnuts, and any other old food that a store might be throwing away. The stinkier the better.

Talk to bear hunters who use cameras to watch their bait piles. You'll hear some really interesting stories about what goes on. I suspect these people's bear problems are not over with, yet.

Everyone makes good points.

Bear are Omnivores (from Latin: omne all, everything; vorare to devour) are species that eat both plants and animals as their primary food.

A bear usually will not eat rotten food just like us. Unless they are hard pressed, hungry and nothing else is handy. They will tear down your birdfeeders and in the North we take them down in the spring and fall when food is scarce for bruins. Too bad the bear got itself in this predicament but I have to agree on bear burgers on the grill. If prepared correctly it is a treat that will out do the expectations.

Thier was still no need for the first person to kill the first bear! This person took all the right precations and still the bear tried to get her horses so she did what she needed to do. But the first person that killed the bear should have been charged with traping the bear.

first of all to the people writing all these negative comments about the bears here in franklin. I dont beleive the people that shot the bears contacted the news paper. i beleive the wardens did that. We have lived here in franklin for 30 some odd years and never had a bear problem like this. these bears were hungry and wanted meat and thats probably why they were eating the goats from farms in sullivan and franklin, 2 pigs in sullivan and tryed several times to get at that womans horse.I call that one lucky horse.

I live in the area where the second bear was killed. I have children and yes i have been very nervous about them getting off and on the bus in the morning. I dont even let them play outside by them selves.

That same bear climbed my neighbors trailer, another neighbor came home one afternoon with both her children in her car with her, pulled in her driveway and guess who was on her deck?? A BEAR there was no nuts or bird seed on her deck.

I take it none of you have children or live stock on your property. If you did im sure you would understand.

we beleive there may be another bear around. Maybe one of you can come chase it back in the woods for us. while your chasing him you can hold a goats, im sure that would help.

this is something you all should read http://www.maineguides.org/referendum/bear_attacks.shtml

Great another bear kill, now we get to hear the bleeding-heart liberals cry for another week. None of this is even news. A bear got shot....so what. Call me when a horse gets killed then I'll start to feel bad. Then the criers can say, " Why do these people keep their animals penned up when they know this is bear country. They should have their animals taken away fro neglect." Two kinds of people in this world: The ones that do what they have to do and the ones that sit around waiting to complain about something that has violated them even though it doesnt really concern them. I'm looking for a reason to shoot a bear....I may go buy some goats.

cmcguire You make no sense !!! they did what they needed to so they could protect their goats and horses. good idea i think i might go get some goats too . i love to eat bear meat

I make sense? If you look closely you'll find that you agreed with me. We both agree that they did what they had to. For the record I was being sarcastic about buying goats, we all know donuts and kittens work best.

Re: franklinwoods's link to bear attack stories: Yes, there is nothing like posting a link to a Web page that was created for selfish political reasons. A Web page that, by the way, fails to put those horror stories into proper perspective. As I wrote in my July 31, 2008, column in the Bangor Daily (which can be read at http://www.bangorinfo.com/RRR/black-bears.html), black bears are not inherently dangerous. Humans are far, far more dangerous.

why does everything have to come down to politics???? I HATE POLITICAL BS.. Shoot political fanatics..save a bear

Bear hunting is a great tradition. I've been legally hunting bears and eating bear meat all my life. Any one who wants to protect nuisance bears needs to come face to face with one. They're dangerous.

"black bears are not inherently dangerous. Humans are far, far more dangerous."

Agree. Maybe we should all be more regulated. I think that we should all have to register in Augusta for permission any time we would like to leave our homes stating the purpose of our trip, when we intend to leave, when we intend to get home, declare any dangerous acts or routes we might take, and then report back in when we get safely back to advise them of any dangerous activity observed / near misses.

More self-blame and more government can only lead to better things for all.

The whole point that I am making here is that the second lady had a good reason to shoot the bear the first person didn't they left a dead goat out in the open on purpose to attract the bear back so that they could kill it. That was wrong.

Two done, several more to go. Hey, I'll bring the buns and the rest of the bear burger fixins.. Where are we grilling at?

If its never actually "hunting" this means we can do it on Sundays. I'm thinking a little pre-gaming before the Pats game this week and maybe shoot a bear or two.....Everyone bring a cat and the six pack of your choice. If we get shut out we can head north the following week and get into real Bear country and pad our stats.

Rick,

My father and I were hunting and we came upon a mother with 2 cubs, and when confronted she stood up screamed like a school gir and they all 3 took off running like a bat out of hell, She was so dangerous that she craped herself and ran,,,,, ooooooh so dangerous, I'm glad I didn't get mauled. If bears are so dangerous then why would a mother bear with 3 cubs,instead of protecting her young and attack, run like hell?

I don't know why anon. Why don't you go try it again and see what happens. If you get away with it enough times maybe we can use the stats to find the chances of a bear attack on a human stumbling onto one. I have money that says you were just lucky. Wanna bet ?

right on mr nixxon

Why is this considered news? We live in Maine and are a state built on the foundations of farming, fishing and forestry. This is not the first (or second)nuisance bear to be shot in our history. Nor is this the first critter to be shot that was raiding a barn (reference tales of: "the fox guarding the hen house". The person that called the newspaper about this foolishness should be ashamed of themselves for tempting someone with such trivial foolishness.

anyone ever tryed bear sausage? Franklin is getting ready to have a bear feast!! anyone have any good recipes?

pcme The dead goat that was "left out" was killed and left there BY THE BEAR!!!!! The owner of the 2 dead goats, who BTW were in the barn when killed, had every right to wait for the bear to return to its kill and to dispatch it!

LET'S ASK THE QUESTION HERE:

TO ALL HUNTERS:

How many of you that have been bear hunting and have been brutally attacted by the bear?

How many of you came upon a bear that did it's damdess to avoid you and run from you?

Or we could ask the news paper to do a poll of all hunters.

MRNIXON: How many times have you been attacted, or have you even stepped into the woods to go hunting?

You act like you have all the answers and have probably never have been close enough to wildlife to observe what goes on, except at a zoo LOL.

This bantering, my fellow hunters, of which I am also guilty of, is why the anti-hunting groups enjoy targeting us- we pointlessly argue back. We must maintain the good fight to keep hunting possible and legal, but we must take the higher road. Yes, I'm speaking to myself too. People that do not hunt think we are barbarians and cold blooded killers. Unfortunately, the've never seen a father and son drop to one knee over a bear, deer, moose, etc. and thank the Lord for the table fare that He provided through the killing shot. We have over humanized animals to the point that many people put more value on the animal than human life. It's a sad reality that we have lost touch with the reasons of why the creatures of the earth were put here to serve us.

Mr Nixxon, it would be my pleasure to spend time with you in the woods. I think we both can learn a lot from each other.

- _Jeff_ (Registered Maine Guide)

MrNixxon wrote: "I don't know why anon. Why don't you go try it again and see what happens. If you get away with it enough times maybe we can use the stats to find the chances of a bear attack on a human stumbling onto one. I have money that says you were just lucky. Wanna bet ?"

I'll take that bet, seeing as how I have had three encounters with a mother bear and cub in the last year without even being bluff-charged. One encounter was at 25 feet, another at 100, and another at about 25 feet -- all within Bangor's Rolland F. Perry City Forest. Here's one photo of a cub I found in July: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=586553&l=9bf70&id=502757487. I stayed with that cub for an hour with the mother pacing in the brush behind me.

My latest encounter with a bear was two weeks ago in the Northeast Penjajwoc Preserve, adjacent to City Forest. The sun had already set, it was dark, and my head lamp picked up the bear's eyes, about 60 feet away. We looked at each other for a second or two, then the bear ran away.

Well MRNIXON:

Here come some comments to our poll,

1 so far who has had a couple of encounters with bears female with cubs no less and the guy is still here to talk about it.

Hummmmm still here to talk about it,,,,

She had time to call someone to come shoot the bear then why didn't she have time to call the warden and let them deal with it. I think it's going to be happening everywhere now. You can shoot a bear in the woods drag it onto your property and say it was after your dog. Everybody that wants to fill their freezer will be doing this now. This is not the last we've heard of this I'm sure. My belief is most wild animals just want to be left alone, they are just trying to survive like every other living creature on this planet. Anybody can critize what I write I really don't care, my husband calls me a bunny hugger. He gives me crap over my beliefs all the time. I think everybody should try to be a bit more compassionate towards wild animals, I'm sure coming face to face with a bear or seeing them trying to get into your barn would be scary, but just shooting off a round from a shotgun would have scared it off, and from what I gather bears are very intelligent it wouldn't forget that the area was dangerous.

I think the fact that we are all missing here is that all the people that had bad encounters with bears have been eaten and cant post any comments because of it.

Ha, Ha ,LOL, LMFAO,RLMFAOROTF: cmcguire05 thats funny. Maybe if the barn doors would have been closed and securred this wouldnt have happened, only back in the old days they let their animals roam at night in the yard, this isnt little house on the prairie, it's civilization and most people secure their animals at night. leave them out in the open and they get killed.