Tragic! ‘Friendly’ young bear shot dead after people feed him to take selfies

A young bear was shot dead by wildlife officials for developing a bond with visitors who often feed him and started taking selfies with it. The 100-pound omnivore described as social media ‘friendly’’ and believed to be around 2 or 3 years old started getting comfortable with visitors who came to visit the park to enjoy the hot weather and started giving food to the bear, or leaving leftovers out for it.

The omnivore was often seen snacking on trail mix, sunflower seeds, cracking corn when photos of it started surfacing on social media and people thought it the coolest idea to have selfies with it.  

Washington County Sheriff’s Office and the Oregon Department of Fish started getting calls about the bear from members of the public earlier this month, when it was seen at the popular Scoggins Valley Park near Henry Hagg Lake, Oregon. Fearing that the animal was already too sociable, wildlife officials shot and killed the young black bear on Thursday.

Deputies are working to get this bear cub near Hagg Lake to go back into the woods... please stay away from the area near Boat Ramp A. pic.twitter.com/tI8m5yTbyk

— WCSO Oregon (@WCSOOregon) June 13, 2019

Officials posted a tweet to warn visitors to stay away from the animal and they managed to shoo the bear back into the woods, until it returned again the next day.

"It was very clear that the animal was way too habituated," wildlife biologist Kurt Licence, one of the officials who euthanized the bear, told the Salem Statesman Journal.

" This is a classic example of why we implore members of the public not to feed bears. With that information, it was a human health and safety risk, and we had to remove it’’, the biologist explaining the decision said in a statement.