Although bears often wander into human settlements, modern tranquilizers have made it possible for people to remove them from almost any site without killing them.
An Eastern Russian police agency is under investigation after a police officer shot and killed a brown bear this week in a local playground in Khabarovsk. The bear had wandered into the nearby Sunflower shopping mall at night after breaking a glass window. Mall security footage shows that the bear seemed terrified, found its way to the front double doors, escaped and ran into the empty playground.
A veterinarian had been called, but police failed to wait for the vet to come and take the bear away alive. Instead, they used smoke to force the bear to flee the mall and then shot it even though it hadn’t harmed anyone.
The officer has received support from many concerned Russian citizens. Four people were injured and two more killed this year in Russia from bear attacks.
Yet, many citizens also demanded this official investigation. There have been 60 wild bears killed so far this year even though many of the bears killed could have been put back in the wild using tranquilizing methods.