Last summer, a Falls Village resident came out of the bathroom and found a black bear in her kitchen. The opportunistic bear opened the fridge, grabbed some chicken and strolled back out the magnetic screen door to the backyard, where it ate its meal before sauntering off. The resident recognized the bear—it had previously helped itself to fruit from her three-dozen fruit trees.
In June, while Salisbury homeowners were napping upstairs, a sow pushed through a screened in porch and entered the kitchen through a door left wide open. The sow rummaged through cabinets to access honey, croutons and chocolate before swiping two small pies from the counter. The homeowners found her outside sharing her bounty with her three cubs.
Then in Avon, workers left a kitchen door open a crack to help paint dry and left for lunch. A sow took a bag of brown sugar and powdered sugar to her cubs waiting patiently outside.
In Hartland, a bear entered a house through a door left open by homeowners who had been grilling on their deck and then went inside to eat. When the bear was discovered, the homeowner yelled, and the bear ran back out the open door—it kept running until it reached the woods.
Body of dead bear seen in CT wildlife disposal area. Why the spot is off-limits to everyone.
These are just a sampling of the bear home entry reports from 2023 and 2024 obtained from the state Dept. of Energy and Environmental Protection through a Freedom of Information Act request.
They reveal that Connecticut doesn’t have a black bear problem. The state has a problem with residents leaving windows open—screens don’t keep bears out—as well as doors unlocked and wide open.
It’s a different narrative than recent headlines about record numbers of home entries by black bears that stoke fear among the public instead of educating. Of the 39 home entries from April 8—June 30, 2024, most were avoidable if residents had followed just a few easy steps to secure their homes and property.
I live in Darien, and it reminds me of when there was a rash of motor vehicle burglaries. The cars were all unlocked. The police chief said at the time: “The bane of our existence is unlocked vehicles. Try as we might, we can’t seem to get people to lock their cars.”
At Friends of Animals, the bane of our existence is that Connecticut residents don’t apply bear awareness guidelines at home to avoid habituation. We applaud residents who take down bird feeders March—November, use bear-resistant trash cans and wait to put trash out the morning of pick-up, and use electric fencing around beehives, chickens and goats.
However, people still don’t seem to understand that scents wafting from their home bait bears inside. Bears can detect and follow scent trails a mile or more back to the source.
DEEP reports that the state’s bear “conflict” reports in 2023: 1,117 involved trash cans, 653 involved bird feeders, 171 involved livestock, and 39 involved beehives.
Of the livestock complaints, most were related to backyard chickens. Also, the majority of cases can be avoided by utilizing the proper electric fencing. With backyard chickens becoming increasingly popular, lots of folks are raising them who never contemplate the need to protect them from predators.
But if you don’t bear-proof your home, you get bears killed. In 2023, DEEP killed four bears because of home entries and another for getting into chickens on a farm.
Not to mention hunting apologists are still keen on establishing a bear trophy hunt in our state and will use home entries to convince legislators. Once you open the door and legalize a barbaric trophy hunt, it’s impossible to stop the carnage. Just look at our neighbors in New Jersey, which reinstated a black bear trophy hunt in 2022. Since Oct. 14, hunters have slaughtered 285 bears. The 2023 black bear hunt ended with 493 needlessly killed.
Shame on New Jersey.
Scientific studies show a weak correlation between the population of bears and bear human interactions. Bear human conflict is more closely correlated to human behavior, according to The Journal of wildlife Management. That’s why people who live where bears live must stop putting out the welcome mat and secure their homes:
- Replace exterior lever-style door handles with good quality round doorknobs that bears can’t push or pull open.
- Keep all bear-accessible doors and windows closed and locked. If you must leave a downstairs window open, install sturdy grates or bars.
- Don’t leave garage doors open. Install extra-sturdy doors if you have a freezer, refrigerator, pet food, bird seed or other attractants in your garage.
Fortunately, zero farmers were granted permission to kill bears who have allegedly damaged crops/livestock/beehives from Jan. 1, 2023, through June 21, 2024.
Bear euthanized after ransacking CT home; another bear tested positive for rabies
However, we can’t unsee the report of a black bear dragging itself across the road with injured rear legs in the town of Berlin before officers euthanized it. Officers believed it had been struck by a vehicle, but an investigation revealed a man shot the bear with a crossbow because it had eaten fish out of his Koi Pond.
He was issued a misdemeanor summons for illegally killing a black bear.
“It wasn’t my responsibility to take action,” the resident said during the investigation. “I guess I screwed up.”
Connecticut’s black bears should not have to pay for residents’ screw-ups with their lives.
Nicole Rivard is media/government relations manager at Friends of Animals, an international animal advocacy group headquartered in Connecticut.
