B.C. man pleads guilty to feeding bears
Allen Piche encouraged two dozen black bears to hang around his Christina Lake property
CBC News
Posted: Mar 24, 2011 4:06 PM PT
Last Updated: Mar 24, 2011 5:16 PM PT
A man from Christina Lake, B.C. pleaded guilty on Thursday to feeding two dozen black bears around his remote property.
Allen Piche admitted in the Grand Forks provincial courthouse that he had fed generations of black bears that had visited his property.
Piche, a self-described "aging hippie" said his former partner began the feedings and he carried on when she was warned to stop because the bears kept coming back.
The feeding went on for years and likely would have continued had Piche not been visited by the RCMP last summer.
RCMP arrested him and three others in August of 2010 for allegedly tending to a large outdoor marijuana grow-op.
Pinche hand feeds a bear on his rural property in this video posted on Vimeo. (CBC) The docile bears came out of the forest and nuzzled up to police officers. One even hung out on a police cruiser for a while.
Piche pleaded not guilty to running a grow-up, but admitted in court to feeding the bears.
He'll be sentenced this fall and, as with everything else in this unusual case, a precedent will likely be set.
Allen Piche feeds two bears a bucket of dog food on his rural property in this video posted on Vimeo. (CBC) Piche's lawyer is aware of only one other charge of feeding dangerous wildlife, which was in Whistler and resulted in a heavy fine.
Piche said he has plans for dealing with the habituated black bears this spring when they come out of hibernation, but that he will not feed them.
With files from the CBC's Bob KeatingShare Tools
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