Tragically, a fed bear is a dead bear," Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife bear and cougar expert Rich Beausoleil said Thursday as he worked on the largest bear removal operation in state history off Stackpole Road northwest of Oysterville. "This was the worst case I've seen in my career."

A record 10 black bears were removed from property about a mile north of Joe Johns Road and on Stackpole where a couple had been feeding bears "up to $4,000 of dog food per year" from information obtained by WDFW. The offending parties "are now cooperating fully" according to WDFW enforcement officer Patrick Anderson, who assisted Beausoleil with removing seven adults and three cubs. WDFW Lt. Dan Chadwick also helped with the operation.

The feeding had been going on for some time, but the problems "exploded" this year, according to many neighbors. Hungry bears used to human contact had knocked a hole in a garage door, destroyed a freezer, and downed a fence on at least three properties. One resident said, "It's pretty frightening when four or five adult bears, who are usually loners, show up on your front porch at the same time."

While feeding wild animals, including black bears is not illegal, continual feeding in a situation like this can lead to obstruction of justice and public endangerment charges.

Beausoleil, who is located in Wenatchee, was called in when the Stackpole problem exacerbated. Anderson said, "We get about a dozen calls a week where a bear has knocked over a garbage can or is in someone's yard, but this situation was serious enough to have Rich come here. There was a pattern here."

Beausoleil related, "People need to know that a bear is a wild animal. They may look cuddly and cute, but they weigh up to 400 pounds and when they associate people with food they can become very dangerous. A child with an ice cream cone and one of these bears could turn into a tragedy. Attacks are rare, but when I put my hand up to a bear just caged and she licks me, then that is a bear too familiar with humans for anyone's good."

Half of the bears were treed by two of the state's three Karelian bear dogs imported from Finland, where the breed hunts grizzlies. They receive extensive training from Beausoleil and are adept at finding and treeing bears. Mishka and Cash were on scene at Stackpole and they treed three cubs and a pair of adults. Beausoleil then used a carefully calibrated tranquilizer gun to anesthetize the animals and they dropped harmlessly into nets.

Other bears were lured into traps baited with pastry including, ironically, day-old bear claws. Thursday afternoon a bear with reddish-brown fur, nicknamed Rusty by the neighbors, was trapped. Beausoleil tranquilized the bear using the dart gun with just enough pop to penetrate the left shoulder with a fine needle. Within 10 minutes the bear was unconscious and Beausoleil and Anderson went to work.

"Since bears cannot blink when tranquilized the first thing we do is put a solution in their eyes," said Beausoleil. "We then measure them for everything under the sun because this is a one-shot deal to study them. We take a DNA sample, tag the bear, tattoo the upper jaw, and put a radio collar around its neck."

Beausoleil determined that Rusty was in fact a female weighing 220 pounds, just shy of the 225 pounds the eight-year WDFW veteran has seen for the largest female. "She stands just over two feet tall and is about five feet in length. She has had litters in the past, but at this time she has no orphaned cubs, which is good. We put in the ear tag and take the DNA during the peak of the tranquilizer's affect to cause as little discomfort to the bear as possible. We put a hood over its eyes in case it can see us to reduce its trauma. We also perform medical procedures on bears that are sick. Rusty is in fine health."

The radio collar is fitted loosely and is made of a material that would last over 10 years, but the WDFW uses a piece of cotton that will rot in less than two years and the bear will lose the device. "We want to track the bears we release so we can see if our program is successful, and it has been. We release them to areas where harvest records show we have a shortage and we release them to areas where natural food is plentiful."

Five minutes after Beausoleil and Anderson departed with Rusty in tow to her new home near Mount Rainier; another black bear took the sweet roll bait, even as a neighbor was using a chainsaw just 50 yards away. "We had to dispatch five bears, including this one, because they were too tame and would have been unable to survive. The meat will be processed and donated to homeless shelters," Beausoleil explained.

"The bears we had to put down have been fed by humans since they were cubs. Local hunters were upset because we removed the bears, but when bears are a threat to people and property we have to take action. Had these bears not been fed by humans, they would have been fine here."

When Rusty was released Thursday evening she had an educational send off. Just prior to the gate being lifted Cash, the Karelian bear dog, barked and raced around her cage several times. "Most people have dogs and we want the bears to learn to avoid dogs and therefore people. Our job is to safely release as many bears back into the wild as we can."

Rusty's red ear tag is number 240. Her forearm is 35 centimeters, head 34 cm., neck 56.2 cm., ear 11.4 cm., chest 91.4 cm., front paw 11 cm., and back paw 14.1 cm. As of Sunday she was doing well in her new home in the Mount Rainier area as was the other female and her three cubs.

Beausoleil stated, "People need to remember when dealing with bears to keep garbage, pet food, and bird feeders out of their reach. Sadly, we believe other people knew of the situation and didn't report it right away. If they had, we could have intervened and probably could have saved all the bears."

Beausoleil concluded, "By feeding bears you are not doing them or your neighbors any favors."