A Bear in San Leandro?

09-28) 17:13 PDT San Leandro -- A customer heading into a San Leandro deli Sunday evening stumbled across something besides salami sandwiches and potato salad: a dead bear.

The unfortunate beast had been fatally shot in the shoulder and was lying on the sidewalk, head hanging over the curb.

How it got there is a mystery.

"There are many unanswered questions here," said state Fish and Game spokesman Kyle Orr. "If anyone knows how a bear got from outside the area to a market in San Leandro, they should call us."

The 300-pound adult male black bear was likely shot elsewhere before it was deposited around 6:30 p.m. Sunday outside Terrace Market, a small neighborhood grocery and meat market on Foothill Blvd., in a residential area just east of Interstate 580, not far from Lake Chabot Regional Park, Orr said.

The East Bay boasts many wild animals, but alas, no bears, according to Shelly Lewis, spokeswoman for the East Bay Regional Park District. Likewise, the nearby Oakland Zoo's only bears are Borneo sun bears, and all three are present and accounted for, said zoo spokeswoman Nicky Mora.

"We're just shocked," said Terrace Market clerk Ethan Carter. "We honestly thought it might have been from a family of bears at Lake Chabot. Very weird."

A customer spotted the bear first and ran into the store saying, "Wow, did you see that bear?" Carter recounted. Staff called the Alameda County sheriff's department, who sent animal control officers to remove the carcass.

Whoever shot the bear could be in a heap of trouble, depending on the circumstances of the bear's demise. The hunter would be required to have a license and to have shot the bear in a legal bear-hunting zone, Orr said.

If nothing else, dumping the bear on a sidewalk could be a violation of a Fish and Game statute banning "wanton waste" of game, he said.

California is in the midst of bear hunting season, which began in August and will run through December, or until 1,700 of the state's 40,000 black bears are killed.

Anyone with information about the case should call Fish and Game Lt. Warden Sheree Christensen, (925) 556-0366.

E-mail Carolyn Jones at [email protected].



Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/09/28/BAJD1FL4UN.DTL#ixzz10shum5Xz

....doesn't this belong in fish talk?




Damn....weird.

Classic Fish and Game though..."If anyone knows how a bear got from outside the area to a market in San Leandro, they should call us."

Thats A big Bear! Imajine how many starving families that would feed!