Some of us go to great lengths to see Grizzly bears in the wild. Devin Mitsuing, 35, appears to look for bears for a more hands on interaction with the bears. Mitsuing was found guilty in trying to box with a grizzly bear after stripping off his shirt and charging at it.
Mitsuing spotted a young grazing grizzly in Canada and jumped out of his truck to challenge the bear to a fight. A witness said that he yelled at the bear for five minutes before charging it. The bear ran off. Not surprisingly, Mitsuing had been drinking. Remarkably, the bear did not respond.
The conduct is remarkably dangerous not just for Mitsuing but for the bear. When I hike around grizzly bears, I am most concerned about young adolescent bears (and mother bears with cubs). Young bears are still learning and are more likely to challenge a hiker. When such incidents occur, rangers in places like Denali will try to shoot the bear with shotgun-launched bean bags to make them less interested in approaching humans. It does not always work, particularly if the bears were able to discover food in a discarded backpack. If it does not work, the bear is killed.
Mitsuing could easily have been attacked. In such a case, there is a good chance that the bear would have been killed to protect others.
The witness called park warden in the Kootney National Park. They located Mitsuing and his friends but determined that they were too drunk to drive. Accordingly, they took them to a local motel. The next morning, the wardens said that Mitsuing was not sure where he was but insisted that he did not throw stones at the bear. He insisted “I was just trying to get a picture, was just f**king around … I thought it was a brown bear.” That did not help.
Mitsuing missed two court dates before finally appearing and being fined $4000.
The fine will go to the Environmental Damages Fund.
Courts can penalize but if he keeps it up the bears may deal out their own justice.
Jeez. Grizzlies are brown bears.
David Benson is the God Emperor of Making Stuff Up and owes me thirty-six citations (one from the OED, one from the town ordinances and two from the Old Testament), an equation and the source of a quotation, after forty-four weeks, and needs to cite all his work from now on. – Well, I know I am being pedantic here, but grizzlies are a subspecies of brown bears and can top out out at 35 mph. Ursain Bolt can do 27 mph. DO NOT try to out run a grizzly. Drop down and play dead.
Russian guy knows how to deal with bear. Russians are smarter than Canadians.
I note with some satisfaction that PCS did bother with a citation.
“Do as I say, not as I do.”
Didn’t.
Thus device has a mind of its own.
This device.
See?
Odd article. Grizzly’s have rights. They are protected under the 2nd Amendment and humans are protected by the same phrase of the 2nd Amendment: … the right to arm bears. We cannot have a well regulated militia without armed bears. People in Chicago who praise Cubs will tell you that as well as people who praise the Bears.
If this bear had been armed he would have shot back.
Liberty2nd – Grizzlies are naturally armed and damn fast.
😂
$4000 is too steep for fighting a grizzly. The Medal of Honor is what he should have gotten.
By all accounts, the bear was minding its own business before Dudley Dowrong tried to box it. If the moron had succeeded in getting himself mauled, the only possible result would be a badly injured or dead drunkard – and a dead bear, because rangers don’t have a choice when a bear has hurt or killed a human.
The Medal of Honor should have posthumously gone to the bear.