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VANCOUVER - The grinning man with greying hair quickly darts backwards as a British Columbia black bear playfully paws at a green pail the man is hoisting before slopping out food for two of the hungry beasts.
"Hi, my name is Allen. I'm the guy in Christina Lake who's been feeding the bears," said Allen Piche in a video shot Wednesday and posted online.
The bears have become world famous in recent weeks after RCMP stumbled across the docile creatures as officers roamed fields of marijuana on a wooded property in the province's southeast.
While Piche makes no mention of charges police laid against two adults in their 40s for the alleged grow-op, he calmly spoke of developments in the bears' livelihoods.
"(Conservation officers have) assured me now that we will not be killing any bears," he said in the video.
"We're going to take these bears right on through to hibernation and that will give us the entire winter to come up with some better solutions than the solutions that a couple of days ago were suggested — which did include killing some of the bears."
Initially, officers with the B.C. Environment Ministry said the animals would likely be exterminated because they'd be unable to survive in the wild on their own after being tamed with dog food.
Public uproar ensued, and an online petition generated thousands of signatures to "Save Bears Found in Drug Bust.''
Canadian actor Jason Priestley even offered a donation of $1,300 to help the campaign.
But the province's environment minister is concerned the video footage of Piche's easy interaction with the bears will set a bad example.
"The most disturbing thing about that video from my perspective is that it could create an impression with people watching the video that it's okay to feed wildlife like bears," Barry Penner said Thursday, after announcing a reprieve for the creatures earlier this week.
"It's just not something you should do, because we know in the long run, fed animals tend to become dead animals. They get into more conflicts when they get used to being around people."
Penner said the couple who fed the bears had been ordered to keep doing so, but to reduce the amount of food leading up to winter hibernation.
By weaning them off slowly, it's less likely the "cold turkey" approach will make them dangerous, he said.
Every year, the ministry destroys hundreds to thousands of bears because they've become acclimatized to humans and then cause trouble.
Ben Kilham, an advisor to the B.C.-based Get Bear Smart Society, said his work on the social behaviour of bears for nearly 20 years leads him to contend food causes the animals to form practical bonds with providers.
"They don't have a personal relationship with that guy, they have a dependancy on his food," said Kilham, who maintains the bears can adjust back to the wild using the same weaning technique.
"They behave very much the same way we do. It's kind of like inviting your brother-in-law over for dinner and he stays for a month."
In the video, a raccoon scampered across Piche's shoulders as he spoke about the "wonderful time" he's had co-habitating with about 24 bears for the past 10 years.
"This last part is just a bit tricky and but I'm hoping that this will end nicely and we'll have one of those stories that's so much different from the one's we've been getting," he said.
"All goes along great for a while and then there's a big sad ending to it. We want a happy ending here."
According to the video, the bears have always been free to leave the property for the surrounding wilderness at their own will.
Penner said the Christina Lake couple will have to pay for the food, and could face charges under the Wildlife Act.
(The Canadian Press, CHNL)
