Charges laid in bear cub shooting

A man has been charged after a bear cub, orphaned when its mother was killed by a car last week, was shot to death near the parking lot of a school in Whistler, B.C.

Students at Whistler Secondary had developed a fondness for the cub, which had taken to feeding on skunk cabbage near the school in the resort town north of Vancouver.

"My English class really like the bear," student Shawn Clarke said. "It didn't threaten anything."

But school officials weren't taking any chances when they saw the bear last week. A trap was brought in over the weekend, but the cub remained on the loose.

On Thursday, a student  riding his bike to school heard gunfire, RCMP Sgt. Steve Wright said Friday.

"He hears two loud bangs and sees someone standing over top the bear with a gun,"  Wright said, "and sees [a man] go up the hill to the car."

Police arrested a man in a neighbourhood near the school, Wright said. There was blood on the man's clothes but police didn't find a gun.

"There's a gun somewhere in the neighbourhood," Wright said, "and we're trying to find that."

Wright said police are alarmed that someone would shoot a defenceless animal not more than 30 metres from the school parking lot.

"It was very sad, first of all," school principal Beverley Oakley told CBC News on Friday. "But then there was some anger, wondering who would do it — who would shoot a bear."

A West Vancouver man, 24, faces five charges, including hunting without a licence and hunting out of season.