Overview
- A three-year-old girl was mauled on her family’s backyard deck on Sunday and was airlifted to BC Children’s Hospital with injuries described by authorities as non-life-altering.
- A parent intervened at the scene to free the child and family accounts say the father scared the bear off and later shot at it with a bow and arrow.
- Maple Ridge RCMP officers shot a bear near the neighbourhood after the attack because it kept returning to the area, but a necropsy showed that animal was not the attacker.
- The B.C. Conservation Officer Service has deployed a predator-attack team to track the offending bear and is asking residents to remain indoors and report any sightings.
- Wildlife experts and conservation groups criticized police response as lacking specialist training and non-lethal options and called for more COS resources and clearer coordinated protocols.