Alaska's governor issues pardon for family of bears slated for euthanasia. [View all]

[Blue_In_AK]

A mother black bear with her four yearling cubs has been wandering around the Government Hill neighborhood of Anchorage, generally wreaking havoc as bears do. Fish & Game had determined that the most expedient course of action would be to terminate their lives before they hurt someone, but the outcry from the people has seemingly prevailed, at the personal request of our new governor.

http://www.adn.com/article/20150418/government-hill-bears-spared-request-governor

A mother black bear and her four cubs known for rummaging through trash in the Anchorage neighborhood of Government Hill were saved from euthanization on Saturday by a phone call from Governor Bill Walker to the commissioner of Fish and Game.

The governor inquired as to whether the bears, whose pending deaths inspired passionate public outcry from both inside and outside Alaska, could be relocated rather than shot, said Department of Fish and Game Commissioner Sam Cotten.

“It wasn’t like he told us not to go ahead,” Cotten said. “He wanted to know if there were alternatives and whether we could look into doing something else.”

The animals will likely be trapped and trucked south to Portage Valley, Cotten said.

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