Boo, the four-year-old male grizzly who escaped twice this year from a refuge near the B.C.-Alberta border, has been neutered.

He made his first escape in early June, going under a fence at the Kicking Horse Mountain Resort near Golden, B.C., after catching the scent of a female grizzly.

Boo the grizzly bear is shown in this undated handout photo. He has ben neutered following two escapes from his refuge enclosure in southeastern B.C.
(Canadian Press/Kicking Horse Mountain Resort)

He was caught and placed under much tighter security in his nine-hectare enclosure.

However, he managed to break out again, and was on the loose for several weeks before returning to the resort in search of food.

Since then, there has been a debate over his future, which included B.C. Environment Minister Barry Penner suggesting Boo be freed with a GPS collar so he could be tracked.

The animal's neutering ends the debate.

A spokeswoman for the environmental group Wildsight says the move may be the best option available in a bad situation

"If you're in a situation where you've got an animal in captivity, it's probably a kindness. And certainly if they were going to leave him, then next breeding season they would have run into the same problem again," said Ellen Zimmerman.

"But the whole situation is unfortunate, and I hope it highlights for the public and for the decision makers what grizzly bears really need to survive, and that's wilderness."
 
Boo has lived in captivity since 2002, when his mother was shot.