ROSLYN, Wash. — The father of the 17-year-old young woman who was scratched by a bear in Roslyn says he feared something like this could have happened as more people descend on the town and trash gets out of hand.
The father, who did not want his face shown, showed KIRO 7 crews a picture of the three large, welted scratch marks on his daughter’s arm.
“We’re just really lucky it wasn’t worse that it was,” he said.
At around 9:40 p.m. Tuesday night, the teen was taking the trash out to the dumpster from her job at a cafe.
Cars hid her view near the dumpster and her father says, as she turned around the vehicles, she was face to face with the bear.
“She’s good, she’s holding in there pretty well,” he said of her condition Thursday.
She didn’t require any medical care, though the family is waiting for the necropsy report from the Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife to check for any diseases.
The Kittitas County Sheriff’s Office and Roslyn Police responded to the 911 call that the 17-year-old made herself after the swipe.
They tracked the bear down as it was headed into a more densely populated area of the mountain town and a deputy used a rifle to lethally remove the animal, at the request of DFW.
“Our top priority is always going to be human safety and, in this case, the bear had shown that it is no longer afraid of humans and had already taken a step to cause physical harm to one,” DFW Wildlife Police Sgt. Brant Johnson said.
DFW believes the bear had become accustomed to human trash as a food source. The dumpsters at the restaurant had just plastic lids to cover them, a little match for the over 350-pound animal.
“Once a bear does know about a non-natural food source or are being fed naturally by humans, they repeatedly will come back to that area,” Johnson said. “It’s an easy place for them to get high-calorie food sources, sometimes they can lose that fear of people that they naturally have.”
The father says he grew up in Roslyn and has seen more bears in recent years than growing up.
Understanding it is bear country, he thinks more trash, namely from visitors, is drawing more bears looking for food into the town.
“We live in nature and as long as we live here there are bears, there will be encounters,” he said. “Everyone needs to be aware, it’s really unfortunate but getting the attractants under control around here would go a long way to making this a lot less likely.”
He sees worse near campsites at the nearby lake and river.
He says piles of trash are left behind when visitors return to their homes at the end of the weekends. People who live in the town wish visitors would show more respect.
“Everyone likes coming, it’s beautiful I get it, but we got to keep it that way,” he said.
Kittitas County is similar in land size to King County, but with two percent of the population.
Off of Interstate 90, 70% of the land is public land. The Kittitas Sheriff’s Office has noticed the buildup of trash namely at recreation areas and campgrounds.
“People act as though there are garbage fairies so we’ve had many incidents of significant cleanup required, areas that are chronically overburdened, get trashy, and that can cause problems like bears.”
Johnson says a fairly new program with Waste Management will supply people with bear-resistant trash cans.
It’s something the father of the attack victim has taken advantage of, though he says he did create a cage around his trash to prevent bears coming to his property.
His frustration comes from Waste Management—he says the owner of the cafe had been trying to get bear-resistant dumpsters since May, to no avail.
Waste Management sent KIRO 7 News the following statement:
“Wildlife-resistant carts and steel lids are available and recommended for residential and commercial customers in areas frequented by bears. The carts for residential customers have a locking mechanism. For commercial customers, we can provide lock bar dumpsters with steel lids. Supplies are limited.”
Waste Management also mentioned that Kittitas County customers may review pricing and order wildlife-resistant carts and steel lids at wmnorthwest.com/kittitascounty.
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