Resident blames problems on people dumping carcasses

Don Schaeffer shot himself a nice white-tailed deer Oct. 27. When he got home, he left the deer in his pickup truck and went in the house for a while.

When the Trumbull Canyon resident came back out, a big black grizzly was in the back of his pickup eating the deer. The bear tried to run with the deer into the woods, but the carcass was tied to a 600-pound strength rope.

That stopped the bear briefly. The big male turned and charged Schaeffer twice. The rope snapped, and the bear got away with half the deer.

Schaeffer went back inside and called Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks grizzly bear specialist Tim Manley. But the bear was back in Schaeffer's yard looking for the rest of the deer before Manley could get to the house, Schaeffer said.

Manley set a barrel trap, and Schaeffer put what was left of the deer in his shed and boarded it up. The griz, however, took as much bait as it could reach from the trap without getting caught and then broke into the shed and took the rest of Schaeffer's deer.

Schaeffer blames his bear problem on residents dumping carcasses alongside the road. It's illegal to dump carcasses near homes and within 200 yards of any public road or right-of-way. Schaeffer said he picked up two deer carcasses and a turkey carcass that were dumped by the gate at the end of the road.

Manley agrees that dumping carcasses is part of the problem. Last week, he said, the bear had moved a few miles away and was likely getting into garbage at Woodland Road.

Manley once again urged residents to secure garbage and animal carcasses. Electric fencing is an effective bear deterrent, and simply taking garbage to the green box site just a few miles away helps, he said.

Carcasses left over from game should be taken to the county landfill.