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The two black bears walked into Hope Pharmasave on Sept. 20
Published 1:38 pm Friday, September 25, 2026A black bear and her cub walked into Hope Pharmasave on Sept. 20, with the mother bear later being killed by the BC Conservation Officer Service.
What started as a couple of wandering bears on Sept. 20 ended with one of them dead and another abandoned in the wild, with a prominent Hope conservationist now demanding some answers to exactly how this happened. Lydia Koot is the chair of the Hope Mountain Black Bear Committee, and she recently published an email to the provincial government regarding the decisions made about the curious bears.on Sunday and wandered around for a bit before leaving and continuing to stroll through other nearby areas of town.and released the cub back into the wild.
“I have been overwhelmed with messages, phone calls, etc.,” said Koot. In her email to Randene Neill, Minister of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship, Koot asked for details on why the province decided to release the orphaned cub back into the wild instead of putting it into a rehabilitation centre.
She said that the cub’s age, health, and history are used by the provincial wildlife biologists to determine the proper course of action, with entry into a permitted rearing facility an available option for orphaned cubs. Koot also posed the question as to whether animal rehabilitation organizations like Critter Care Wildlife Society or Northern Lights Wildlife Society were contacted before releasing the young black bear back into the wilderness.
Northern Lights Wildlife Society confirmed that they were not contacted due to Hope being out of their intake area, but said that they are always willing to assist wherever needed.
“I recognize that B.C. ’s current guidance states that healthy black bear cubs approximately eight months of age may be capable of surviving independently,” said Koot.
“My concern is not simply whether independent survival is possible, but how the Ministry determined that it was the most appropriate option for this individual cub, based on its documented condition and circumstances. ” Koot encouraged other concerned residents to also email the Ministry of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship to pressure the government to provide information on this recent decision.to get the provincial government to answer why this choice was made, with this Change.org petition accumulating more than 1,300 signatures in the first 72 hours.
This recent bear incident points to a larger trend of increased black bear deaths at the hands of the BCCOS. According to data from the provincial government, the first seven months of 2026 have led to 137 black bears dying from the BCCOS or other unnatural means.
WildSafeBC said that many of these deaths could be avoided by people properly containing their garbage, which the group estimates was the leading attractant in 53 per cent of bear sightings between 2015 and 2019. The second-biggest culprit was residential fruit trees and bushes, which attracted 14 per cent of bears.
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